My Best Friend is a Monster
by movielover01
Summary: Kat isn't in a good position right now. She goes to a great school but she doesn't have good grades. She had a wonderful collection of porcelain figures that is now a collection of broken glass. All of her school books are now paper shreds. Then she finds out the culprit behind the cruel acts; Maurice the monster that lives under her bed. Now, he's her best friend.
1. The Massacre of Porcelain

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form. **

Kat couldn't believe it. Well, she could but she didn't want to. She stared intensely down at the seemingly innocent sheet of tri-folded paper with tired disappointment. Four F's, a D, and two A's stared leeringly back from the paper. Her body slumped and her school bag fell onto the tile of the front room with a heavy thunk. Her heart sagged with sad shame and she folded the paper back into its original state and set it on the island. Kat needed a snack after that bomb shell. Her conscious began to whisper to her from the back of her head as she padded along the floor towards the kitchen and the fridge.

"You could be an A student easy you know," it spoke and her thoughts echoed in her mind.

"You could be just as good if not better than all those other kids that show up with A's," her mind hissed bitterly, "But you can't. Because you're a lazy bum who would rather sit and listen to her stereo and waste her perfectly smart brain then actually take the time to do her homework."

Kat shook the thoughts away and opened the door to the fridge. After a quick examination she grabbed a Dr. Pepper and the leftover pan of chicken stir-fry from the night before. On her way out she grabbed a fork then made the short trek to her room. Inside was a testament to her childhood. All of her furniture from back when she was just a little toddler was in this room still being used. The pink was almost blinding. The walls were painted a pink leaning just slightly towards a purple. Her bed, desk and chair, bedside table, and shelf/dresser, were all matching pieces. Her bed was a four poster canopy bed. The frame was white metal bent elegantly into hearts for the headboards, ruffled pink cloth acted as the canopy tied to the four posters, on it laid a deep purple comforter with peace signs of neon but soothing colors, three pillows were piled onto each other at the top, stuffed animals sat all pushed against the wall on the bed, at the foot of her bed laid a crumpled pink wool blanket she only used for the cold months, her sheets were a violet pink.

Next to it on the right hand far side of the room next to the bed was her bedside table. With legs made with the same design the desk of it was glass. On it sat three lamps; one was a Victorian porcelain doll holding a teddy bear with a lamp shade above its head, the one next to it was a painted glass lamp that turned on with the touch of a finger, the last one was a lava lamp with pink liquid and orange lava that no longer melted quite right and moved like the lava in a lava lamp should. Next to the lava lamp was an alarm clock set for 1:30 a.m. and in front of the porcelain lamp doll looking towards the bed were two little picture frames with holy messages in them. In a little rack beneath the table sat a dusty pile of papers and a basket with useless trinkets collected over the years inside.

Next to that was another porcelain doll dressed in a gold gown leaning against the wall beneath the window that also wore the pink ruffled material from the bed as curtains. In front of it sat a collectable white horse figurine also collecting dust with a flawless white mane decorated with ribbons and braids. A rocking chair sat beside those and on it was a pile of stuffed animals that couldn't fit on her bed smothered beneath a cluttered teetering pile of dirty laundry. Crammed under the rocking chair was a white overnight bag speckled with black polka dots. The remaining corner of the wall up to the closet was a pile of her shoes; sneakers, boots, cleats, heels, slippers were all crammed into the corner as well as a small Christmas tree box and a vacuum.

On the wall above this cluttered mess was three pictures all hanging above each other. Each was a season of soccer with her picture on the plaque and her team's picture below it. The closet was always closed leaving the contents inside a mystery until the sliding doors were opened again. The wall running along the corner and away from the other wall sat the closet which took up a good chunk of the wall. At the end of it the door was positioned. At the very middle of the closet and the door sat Kat's desk. It matched the bed and bedside table perfectly with the same design on it. On the right end side of the floor sitting against the desk was a basket filled with books she had already read and piled with art supplies that had no room on her desk among other things.

Her desk was organized chaos. On the right there was a pile of comics, folders with artwork in them, notebooks for writing, a sketchbook, a dictionary, and a pencil box close to bursting with all the art supplies Kat had attempted and somewhat succeeded in cramming into it. In front of that office supplies; a stapler, envelopes, a Polaroid camera with extra film lying next to it, little foam toys in funny shapes, and a pencil holder in the shape of a green painted dinosaur. Next to that was a water paint box with a cylinder filled with crayons, colored pencils, a hole-punch, and other small objects sitting on it. Sitting on that was a jumbo sized sketchbook open to her latest drawing and pencil pouch. Using what little space was left on the water paint box she set up four different colors of post-it notes and a small plastic box filled with more small useless trinkets and push-pins.

Next to those things were her three soccer trophies. Then she used the remaining space on her desk for her boom-box. On the left hand far wall of the room next to the door she had crudely nailed in a hat rack. On it she had piled her many hats in overlapping and carefully arranged piles so none of the hats would fall if she opened the door. Nailed with the same technique was her calendar with various movie posters above the actual calendar. Under the calendar sat a metal trash bin she never used except for space for other things. On it she sat her school books, school folders she switched off each day of her block schedule, and other books she was putting off reading.

Next to that was her shelf/dresser that also matched the bed. It was white with carved details. She didn't keep much in the dresser draws but the shelves were dedicated to her porcelain doll and rubber duck collection. The ducks, all of different themes and outfits, were all sitting on the very bottom shelf all arranged in neat rows. The porcelain dolls took up the bottom and two other shelves. All were placed with precision and with space in mind and each one was a collector's item. Kat didn't like keeping them in the box and found it much better to put them on display where she could see them. Next to that was her real dresser where she kept her pj's, undergarments, socks, shorts, undershirts, and skirts. On it were her jewelry boxes, her television, her Nintendo system, multiple games, and her Gameboy.

On the walls of the room were pieces of paper all bearing a famous saying or quote that held deep meaning for Kat or ones she just liked scribbled with colorful markers, an old Oakwood clock her grandfather had made for her personally, pictures her friend had drawn for her on her Birthday the previous year, a plaque she had won in fifth grade, and a medal hung from a tack. Yes, this was her room. One fitting for a much younger girl not one as old as her; but, she was content.

She walked in and reached across her desk and grabbed her boom box. Tied to the handle was a bag of all her tapes. She ejected the previous one and looked through the bag for a new one. Journey, Kenny Loggins, Michael Jackson, Queen…Slade! That's the one she wanted to hear right now. She popped the tape into the radio and spun the dial on the radio full blast. Run Run Away roared from the speakers and the mattress beneath her vibrated. Kat kicked off her chucks and reclined on her bed and her eyes closed as she soaked in the music. Her dad was at the grandparents' house again helping them fix up a house that at this point could never be fixed. The blaring music drowned out the dogs whines from the door from her father's absence and if the phone rang she wouldn't be able to hear that either. But she didn't really care.

She dug into the left overs in her lap and sipped at her soda as she listened to the radio run through the Slade cassette. She had finished off the pan of food by the time the cassette finished. The next tape she popped in was Queens. The next few hours were spent singing along to her tapes, completely blind to the outside world. There was no world. It was just her, her radio, and her room. But her euphoria was destroyed by her father walking in. She stopped mid note and quickly shut off her boom box.

"Why'd you stop?"

Her father wore an amused smile. He had been a singer in his day, fluent in Clarinet, Piano, but his home language was Guitar and the language of the voice. Whenever he heard his daughter sing it filled him with joy. She sounded better and better every day. Kat shrugged and patted her thigh as she sat on her bed and squirmed.

"I don't know. You were in the doorway and I wanted to give you attention. I can only focus on one thing at a time."

Jerome rolled his eyes at his daughter, "Right. Take out the dishes."

Kat groaned but followed behind him. She took out the dishes and then retreated back into her room. That is, she tried getting back to her room.

"Baby doll, come here for a second!"

Kat groaned but went from her room and out the back door to stand beside her dad. He was looking up into the setting sky.

"Would you look at that? Isn't it gorgeous?"

Kat looked up into the soft hue of orange and pink clouds and sighed, "Yeah, it's beautiful."

"Look at it."

"I…am looking at it."

"No, really look at it. What do you see?"

Kat sighed. She really wasn't in the mood for this but she relented and did what he said.

"I see lots of blending colors. Blue, pink, orange, and red colors all blending together and swirling with the clouds. And the sun is shining behind it making the colors stand out even more."

"Yeah, but, look at just how the sun is reflecting off of the clouds. How the light hits the other buildings."

Kat rolled her eyes but nodded, "Yep sure is beautiful."

"Oh, you don't really care."

"No! No, I do! It's just that…I already looked at the sunset. I already know this."

"I know. Go on."

Kat sighed but gave her father a quick kiss on his bald head. The burst of guilt was short lived and wore off as soon as she turned her music on. As The Jackson 5 sang about boogie she was drawing a lion. The head was nearly there. Just a few excruciatingly, carefully drawn hairs left to do then she could move onto the front paws of the beast. That's when her brother decided to come in.

He slammed the door open and stood there obviously expecting her attention. Kat was distracted but her attention was firmly tied to her sketch and she ignored him for the most part.

"Kat!"

He was yelling above the music which she had turned down when her folk came home. Kat reached over and turned the music on full blast. That only made her brother lift his voice to shrieking levels.

"_KAT!"_

Kat slammed her sketchpad down and shut off her radio, "WHAT! What do you want?! Why're you botherin' me?! Go away!"

She looked up at the dopy face her brother was making and in a voice of humorous mentally challenged guy said, "Hey."

Kat shook her head and smiled at her brother to humor him.

"Very nice, now, would you scoot off."

"Nope."

Her brother bounded into the room and jumped onto her bed.

"Alexander! My bed will break if you keep doing that! Pft, you're too heavy for this," Kat heaved from under her brother.

"No, you're comfy. I like it here!"

"I'll call dad!"

"Go ahead."

"MOM! DADDY!"

Alexander leaped up and slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Okay, okay I'm up!"

Kat shoved his hand away and wiped her mouth, "Gross dude and you don't wash your hands!"

"I do so!"

"Oh really. When?"

"This morning."

"Ugh," Kat shook her head and picked up her sketch book to continue.

Alexander stood there making stupid distracting faces and Kat looked up, peeved, "What do you want? You want my game system? Take it!"

Alexander smiled, showing that her shot was right on mark and ran for her Gameboy.

"But! If you lose it or any of my games in that black hole that is your room you're going to wake up with a bald head."

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try," he scoffed as he gathered up the cards and walked off.

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

Her brother yelled out a retort but it fell on deaf ears. Kat had already tuned herself out. She drew for another hour before her exhaustion caught up with her. She glanced at her clock. It was only five. Dad was in the kitchen making dinner. Taco's tonight. She could smell the particularly seasoned meat that only was cooked when they had tacos. How many hours of sleep had she gotten last night? She counted on her fingers. Let's see now, she thought, I went to bed at eleven and I woke up at one-thirty but I stayed in bed till three…four hours. She heaved out a heavy sigh and wiped her eyes. She needed the sleep.

But, she reminded herself, she had a project that was due tomorrow. Part of it at least. And she hadn't done any of it yet. She had to do it! She had a thirty percent in the class as it stood. Her grade could not survive another missing assignment. But, her body told her she could do it after a good night's rest. So, pushing her priorities to the side again she got ready for bed.

She put her sketchbook back onto the cylinder on her desk then stripped for bed. She never slept in clothes. Only her underwear. It was more comfortable especially in the summer months when it was hot even with her fan on. She threw her clothes except for her bra onto the teetering pile on the rocking chair then hopped into bed. It took her fifteen minutes to fall asleep. Her parents left her be as did her brother and she slept soundly through the night. When she woke up something wasn't right. The dawn had just come and light was streaming through the open window. She got up and slipped on a dirty nightgown from her clothes pile and shuffled towards the door to go and take care of business. She stopped mid-step at her shelf. She looked up and her heart clenched with disbelief. All of her beautiful dolls she had collected over thirteen years of her fifteen years of life had been smashed to pieces. Her ducks had been ripped apart by what looked like a dog. She looked onto her dresser and her heart hit her stomach. Her game system had also been smashed as was all of her games. She looked over at her bedside table. The doll lamp had been smashed and so had her golden dress doll. Everything that had been valuable or precious had been destroyed.

Kat did the only thing she could think of. She stared at the massacre of porcelain with disbelief. She let a few upset tears fall and she got dressed then she ran for her parents. Her mom was styling her hair in the bathroom. Kat stormed in her face red and upset.

"What is it, Kat?"

"Come here," Kat said simply.

Cassandra put the last bobby pin in her head and followed her daughter into her room. Kat held out her arm to the absolute devastation area of broken figurines and Cassandra let out a loud overacted gasp. "What happened," she practically wailed.

"Does it look like I know," she answered shortly, "I just came in here and all my things were trashed," Kat said through a sob of sadness.

Cassandra face red stomped into her son's room. He was fast asleep in his bed.

"Wake up!"

Alexander turned and stared up at his mother with frightened tired eyes, "Why?"

"Why what," Alexander asked through sleep.

"You don't know," Her mother asked dumbly.

"No. What?"

"Come here."

"No."

"COME HERE."

Grumbling he tromped out of the room into his sisters. When he saw the mess his eyes shot open and his mouth gaped.

"What happened?"

"You didn't know," Kat asked with a sarcastic edge but a tone of confusion.

"No, I've been asleep." 

"Oh, so you think I got up in the middle of the night and destroyed my dolls? Who else would do that? Oh! AND you wrecked my Nintendo!"

"NO I DIDN'T!"

"Ha! Wanna bet!"

Kat lifted the Nintendo that was now two pieces for her brother to see. His eyes flickered between his mother and sister and he saw the position he was in was not a good one.

"I don't care what you two say I DIDN'T DO IT! OKAY!"

"Stop yelling! We'll talk about this later. Don't come into this room until your dad has cleaned up the glass. I can't believe this…"

Cassandra left and the two siblings stared at each other grimly.

"You didn't do it."

"No," he answered like she was dumb.

"Then who did," Kat answered her voice sad again.

"I don't know but it wasn't me… Maybe it was the guy…"

"What," now Kat was the one staring at her brother like he was challenged.

"Look, I know it sounds stupid but I saw a…thing moving from under my bed through the house to your room last night. I fell asleep but I heard a cackle."

"So….you think a monster from under your bed came into my room last night and trashed my stuff," Kat asked in a way one might speak to a crazy person.

"No! I-ugh! I'm not talking to you anymore."

"Someone did it!"

"Ugh! Whatever! Leave me alone!"

Alexander stormed out and Kat glared after him.

"Oh, now you're upset when I'm the one that had all my stuff smashed! WHAT A LOAD!"

She was muttering to herself angrily as she got dressed for school. Jeans and a plain t-shirt just like every other day. Her hair was slightly greasy since she had went to bed before her usual afternoon shower and that just made her even more ticked. She put it into a lazy ponytail and grabbed her 6th Beetle cap. She wasn't hungry so she didn't eat breakfast but she forgot her lunch in the fridge. Great. Mom drove her to school since dad wasn't budging from the bed. She questioned her about the scene. Do you know who did it? Did you hear anything? Did you see anything? Did they do anything to you? Are you sure it wasn't your brother? Would he do that? Kat answered for every question that she had no idea with tired annoyance. At the end of the drive, she watched from the curb of sidewalk as her mother drove away. She didn't have her homework, her room had been destroyed, she was still tired, AND she was stressed. She wished she had hid in the house today or played sick. But she had to do what she had to do and she turned and begrudgingly walked up to the D-building door of her high school.


	2. Scratches in the back

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

School was just as painful as the start of the morning. Kat attended a five star magnet high school that expected only the best from their students. In her Human Body class she was banished to the classroom for not completing the pre-lab for the dissection. While she sat alone jotting down unfinished information she was forced to endure the pain of watching the dissections through the open door to the lab. Kat could hear all of her friends from her desk. The all sounded so carefree and genuinely excited about the dissection. And while they were having fun she was here; forced to remain in the empty and silent classroom. Needless to say, that didn't help her depressed mood any.

Chemistry class wasn't much better. She was lost in the lesson only a few minutes in. Try as she might to calculate the number of breaths a human takes in the average lifetime her brain couldn't work out the problem stamped onto her paper. On top of that, the teacher had kindly reminded her that their science reports were due next class as well as: two pages of equations from the textbook, the worksheet, and the extra credit report that she sorely needed to finish to receive a passing grade in the class.

Lunch provided little relief to her panicked mind. She had so much to do! But, was she going to do all of it? The question made her heart sink with shame at the answer. Probably not, definitely not all of it. She had friends she could have talked to but she decided against it. She chose a sunny little bench at the end of the school to sit at and instead read a book. Kat didn't even bother to attempt to finish the project activity she had for English. There was no way that she would be able to crank out a clean assignment worth submission in forty minutes. And there was no way she was going into that class with a shitty one either. When the bell rang signaling the end of lunch Kat felt like running for the nearest exit.

But Kat was still above ditching just to escape the embarrassment and sadly stomped off to her English class. She finished her warm up listened politely to her teacher's ramblings and when the teacher called her table up to show their activities dread was squeezing her shoulders tightly. All her group members had impressive, colorful, creative, and admirable pieces of work held up for her to see. Kat stuffed her empty and clammy hands into her pockets.

"Next!"

Kat stepped up to bat and she had no bat to hit the wall with. The teacher looked up at her and Kat quickly blurted, "I don't have it."

The teacher looked up at her with a very serious look of concern, "Get on it Kiddo!"

That was that. The positively worst thing wasn't the painful exchange between her and her teacher. It was as she sat down she barely felt any guilt. But she felt plenty of shame. World history was the only class where she got some relief. History had always been a topic that she was eager to learn about. She couldn't really explain it either. On paper the subject was everything she hated but in class she loved it. They were learning about the first emperor of China Qin. They watched a video that Kat thoroughly enjoyed and took notes which she didn't mind.

At the end of school she chose the very last seat on the bus. She leaned against the window with her legs stretch out on the seat. She followed the passing objects until they fell behind the bus. Both of her friends that she walked home with staying late at school for clubs and work so she made the trek home alone. At the green door of her house she pulled out her set of keys and picked through the ton of little trinkets attached to the chain for the key. Once she found it she unlocked the door and walked into her house. Her first stop was the bathroom then she made herself a peanut butter sandwich with pork grinds sprinkled into it. In her room her backpack and folders glared back at her. This couldn't go on anymore. Her parents were going to have a fit when they found her grades and she was always so tired and stressed. No, this was going to end!

Determined Kat grabbed her chemistry folder and a pencil and replaced them with her boom-box. She needed her book first. Best to get the easy stuff out of the way. She took a step to her metal trash bin and pulled out her chemistry book. All seemed innocent and perfect but that was far from what it truly was. She dropped it on the table opened her notebook to an empty page checked the page number for the book and flipped to it. What Kat found was truly shocking. The page had been ripped. Not just torn but the tears were ragged almost like something had ripped it out with its teeth. In a state of frenzy she flipped through the pages and each one was ripped apart, some pages in better shape than others. She jumped back to her other books and pulled them out of the pile. Every single one of her books had been ripped apart.

Kat looked up to her shelves that were now strangely bare. In the emptiness of her house she let out a shriek of rage and horror. She was in a daze of anger for an hour just staring disbelievingly at her books. She cried, oh she cried. She screamed, beat the stuffing out of her pillows, and she cried some more. When Jerome came home he found his daughter asleep with a red face and her floor covered with books with defiled pages. On the island he found a tri-folded piece of paper.

Kat felt like absolute crap when she woke up. She lifted her clock to her face and read the time. 12:00. Kat groaned and rubbed her eyes. She wasn't going to bother today. She didn't care anymore. She took off her clothes in the bed and threw them onto the chair of her desk then cuddled back into her covers. She shooed away the thoughts of the homework she had yet to finish and the loss of not only her collection but her schoolbooks as well. How much did each one of them cost? Fifty bucks? Either way her parents were going to be furious with her.

At 2:30 Kat and her bed began to rise from the floor. A figure appeared from under her bed. Eerie dark eyes looked around and noticed the books on the floor. It smiled proudly then turned to look at its victim lying in bed. The sight of pale bare flesh illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the curtains didn't shock it as much as it had the previous night. Yet, he stood still and watched its victim a little longer than one who had seen a girl naked in her bed before. She wasn't skinny that was for sure. But she wasn't fat either. She was…chubby. Yeah, that was a good word. A pale shapely leg stuck out from her covers and the intruder scraped a yellow claw over the smooth skin. Kat let out a small mewl of discomfort and pulled her leg into the safety of the covers.

The intruder watched her for a while longer then a sharp toothed ugly grin spread across its face. It reached over the sheets and pressed its claws to the very top of Kat's back and prepared to scrape down. Not hurt her but just to give her some discomfort tomorrow. His arm tensed and prepared to move and that's when Kat decided to stretch. His claws dug into her back left light but stinging cuts on her back. It retracted and winced in the darkness. Blood oozed from the cuts and Kat sat up, clutching the covers over herself. She could only catch a movement and a grunt coming from below her bed before she tapped her lamp on and looked around the room. It was empty. No one could have gotten out of her room that fast without opening a window or door. But the evidence that somebody had been there before her was scratched into her back.

The first thought that popped into her head was whether or not she should tell her parents. Mom would definitely not believe her and even dad would have a hard time believing it. No, she would just have to think on it and move on with life. She definitely wasn't going to go back to sleep after that.


	3. An Uninvited Guest

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

Kat hadn't slept a wink after the thing had woken her up. Kat couldn't find the courage to leave the safety of her bed at the chilling mystery of what lurked underneath. When the first rays of the morning dawn pushed through her pink curtains Kat deemed it safe to get up. She carefully placed her feet onto the carpet and kneeled down to the level of the floor. She peered carefully into the dusty carpeted underside of her bed and found absolutely nothing under it. Nothing but stray clumps of dust and stuffed animals that had fallen through the cracks of her bed. And Kat doubted her stuffed lamb was the one who gave her the scratches.

A frustrated sigh groaned through her lips and she stood and collapsed back onto her made absolutely no sense! A figure had been in her room and it had scratched her. That much she was sure about. She was also sure that it was the intruder that had trashed all of her things the night before. Every possible explanation passed through her mind...once, twice… After three times of reviewing the same explanations she groaned and pulled at the skin of temple. There was no explanation! No logical one that her parents would believe anyway. Was the person even...human? Kat wasn't sure. Those eerie dark eyes she had seen for a split second in the darkness hadn't looked...right.

Maybe, she reasoned with herself, she had been dreaming it up and scratched herself when she jerked in her bed. But Kat still didn't believe that. There wasn't anything remotely sharp in her bed that she could have scratched herself on. Plus, she was lying on her side when she got those scratches. It was the scratches that woke her from her sleep. Kat yawned. It was too early to be thinking this hard. Sluggishly, Kat performed her usual morning activities. But today she spent much more time looking herself over in the bathroom mirror then she normally did. Her shirt stretched over the counter waiting to be worn; Kat examined the cuts carefully through the mirror. They were perfectly clean lines that dragged down from her shoulders to the middle of her back. They were red and angry but they weren't bleeding and they didn't look infected.

The longer she looked the more the temptation to tell her mother rose in her. But why should she? What would her mom and dad be able to do other than coddle her? Coddling sounded nice but solving the source of the problem sounded a lot better. Kat resigned the idea and pulled her black t-shirt over her head. She hissed as the cuts sent shivers of pain up her back from the friction between them and the shirt. It was one of her favorite shirts. Her band shirt from her middle school. It was super comfortable but comfortable or not the cuts still hurt like a mother.

Kat couldn't eat a thing; she was too tired and upset to eat. She glanced at her alarm clock and saw she only had seven minutes to walk to her bus stop. She quickly pulled on her chucks leaving the laces loose and switched her folders from her even day classes to her odd day classes. Mom had already left, Kat realized. The house was silent. Dad was probably still sleeping and so was Alexander. She wasn't going to wake up her father today. Kat wanted to avoid the storm as long as humanly possible. Alone, with dawn rising on her back, she walked to her bus stop. James was standing with Ernie at the stop, the only two human beings there. Kat smiled for the first time that morning.

James had his radio on low playing some slow rock. Ernie was listening along.

"Hey guys!"

Ernie looked up and raised a hand, "Hey, Kat."

James offered an open palm and she lightly patted her own palm against it then pulled it away into a fist bump, "Hey."

"Where is everyone?" Kat asked with disinterest.

James shrugged his arms making sharp angles due to his hands stuffed into his pockets. Ernie looked stunned, "I don't know. They were here yesterday."

"Maybe they just got a ride. Or maybe they're absent I don't know." Kat finished with a tired heavy shrug and a tight face.

"You look tired," Ernie observed.

Kat nodded. "I am! I was up all night."

"Homework," James offered sympathetically.

"No, just have a lot on my plate right now."

"I was doing vocabulary and the About Me presentation for Social studies," Ernie stated.

"I was studying vocab for engineering."

Kat winced. "That sucks."

James shrugged. "Not that bad. It's just a lot of memorization and terms. It's the MATH I hate!"

"Well, it is engineering," Kat pointed out with a snarky grin.

"I thought we'd be building things too! Not doing all these math packets!"

"I thought you were in Media?"

James shook his head. "Naw, it was my elective class."

"Did you take it this year?"

"No, I'm taking Spanish and French this year for extra credits."

Kat's nodded and knew she was probably going to forget his classes by tomorrow. Ernie was dancing off to the side in boredom and Kat giggled. Ernie was tall and his limbs always moved in the perfect way to elicit a giggle. Kat began to bob with him and Ernie smiled.

"So, how's everyone doing," Kat asked.

"Tired." James stated bluntly.

"Good." Ernie contradicted.

"How are you not drowning? I was so lost freshman year. Who am I kidding; I'm still a bit lost!"

"I have a schedule I follow for homework…"

Kat listened politely to Ernie talk about his homework management though she didn't really care. The bus turned the corner and Kat hitched her bag higher on her shoulder. Their bus system sucked. First few weeks were torture. It was a dice roll whether the bus would even show up at the stop. But, the bus was nice. It had plenty of seats all the time and it was quiet. Most kids just took a quick nap on the way to school. Kat hopped up the steps exuberantly but trudged through the isles like a zombie. The very back seat was her seat of choice.

School was much better than the previous day. But odd days were always her easy days. The only academic class she had was Geometry but Kat found that just as easy. Theater was good for a laugh, it always was. Band was enjoyable, it always was. Geometry was filled with easy notes which she copied down and doodled off to the side of her notebook. Dance was fun but today it was not her favored subject. Ballet was complicated and very particular about its moves and the instructor was just as picky. Kat attempted to dance to the best of her abilities but her body just couldn't handle the strenuous stretches and leaps.

As her bus pulled up to the curb of the stop Kat almost rethought walking with her friends. She just wanted to get home and she always meandered when she walked home with Ernie and James. Oh well, she couldn't leave her friends hanging. She walked off the bus and her friends were waiting dutifully at the foot of the bus.

"Hey," James greeted and held out a hand.

Sid half smiled and pressed her palm against his. He slapped his other hand on it.

"Sandwich!"

James laughed and Kat giggled. The three walked Kat on the very left end Ernie on the right end and James pressed into the middle.

"I'm so tired," Kat groaned with a rub of her eyes for effect, "I have so many projects to do."

"I know right," James exclaimed with equal annoyance, "I have a history project, English project, Chemistry project…"

"So many projects," Ernie said and both sophomores nodded their heads to their freshman pal.

They approached the crosswalk and Kat in her drowsiness stepped out onto the road and didn't notice a car was coming.

"Hold up!"

James and Ernie pulled Kat by her backpack back onto the curb before the car had the chance to hit her.

"Dude! What happened," James demanded looking shocked.

"I'm sorry," Kat said telling her heart to step beating, "I didn't see it."

"If you're that tired then you need to go home and sleep!"

"That's the plan."

The three walked on forgetting the near death while they joked.

"Yeah, my mom would slap the crap out of me." James laughed as he walked stuffing his keys a bit farther into his pocket.

"My mom would too if I was doing that," Kat added with a scoff and a laugh.

"My mom would leave me out on a road somewhere and expect me back at dinner," Ernie said and all three laughed.

"I'm looking at the man in the mirror," James sang purposely bad as he held his hand out to Ernie. Ernie was walking backwards and mirroring James with his hand held out.

"Dude, I think there's something wrong with your reflection."

"Huh." James asked.

"Your reflection."

"What?"

"It doesn't look like you."

James looked out and smiled.

"You don't look the same," Kat said with a giggle, "Your reflections taller than you!"

"And skinnier," James added, "And where's your glasses? And pimples."

Kat smiled admiringly at her friend. She liked that her friends could joke about their flaws without being embarrassed.

"He doesn't have any," Kat said.

Ernie lifted up his curly mop of black hair revealing a few blemishes on his tanned skin.

"Oh! There it is…"

On her left was the car entrance to her neighborhood. Kat had a lot of things to do and she needed to get to them…

"I'm tired you guys so we're going to have to part ways here."

"Kay, see you tomorrow," James said.

"See ya," Ernie yelled.

Kat stepped out onto the road making sure she looked for cars. A few of them were coming but they were far away.

"Kat, look out for the car! Look out! It's a car! Look out!"

Kat giggled as James shouted in a girl's voice after her. The short walk to her house was quiet and tiredness snuck up on her and grabbed her again. When she got home homework was the last thing on her mind. She had had a whole day to think about the thing under the bed and as dumb as it sounded it was her only good bet. Besides, if she was just paranoid and being stupid no one would see her or even know about it. She'd just move on with life and it would be forgotten. For a while she just sat in statue like silence and thought about how she should go about this. A lot of plans passed through her mind but only one stuck with her and she followed that one.

She was going to trap whatever was in the room. It was an extreme measure but Kat was sure the situation called for extreme action to be taken. She had to trap the…thing in the room. It seemed to Kat that it came from under her bed. So she had to be able to lure the thing out but trap it after. That was a tricky problem. Her bed was metal so she couldn't saw the legs off, and it was pretty freaking heavy. The only thing she could find in her exploration through the garage was a couple of bungee cords with metal hooks, a red and white braided rope with a huge key chain hook at the end of it, a five foot metal linked chain. She needed more. She dropped her pile of assorted junk onto her bed and went back to the garage for more.

She wasn't having much luck the second time around. Until she looked at the bikes, to be more specific, Alexander's bike. He had grown out of it four years prior so he wouldn't mind if she took it apart right? It was going to be used for a good cause. Sneaking past her parents she sat down onto the bed and stared at her supplies as she brainstormed. She was going to have to get real creative for this one. She thought for a few minutes and realized that for this plan to work she needed the bed evened out. Meaning: the feet of the bed had to go. So, she made for her parents closet. Her dad was sleeping, he had a sleeping problem so it didn't shock her, and she tip-toed across the tile floor with her socks to the closet. The closet was a jumbled mess of boxes and objects all crammed into any available space. Underneath her father's suits on the ground was her father's tool box.

With careful focus she gathered up all of the stray tools and snuck the heavy box out of the room with two arms for safety. Back in the safety of her room she dug through the greasy old tool box. She nearly screamed with joy when she plucked a bag of corkscrew ended pins with metal circles at the tops. She set them off to the side and reached for her rope. The rope had to be at least a yard long. The rope went to sit alongside the bag of corkscrew pins. Now what was left was the business of taking the legs off of her bed. She took out the good ole' fashioned screw driver and took out the screws by hand. It was too much of a risk using the power drill; it would wake her dad up for sure. Then she would have to explain to him her procedures and then her plans would be terminated.

So she went through the boring time consuming process until all four legs of the bed were unscrewed. She quickly went to get a baggy and placed all of the screws, bolts, and legs in it so she wouldn't lose anything. Now was the fun part. First she pushed two pins securely into the wall above her dresser. Then she did the same on the wall above the head of her bed. Using the braided rope she ran the end of the rope through the circles in the pins. The next part required a bit of lifting. Using her ruined textbooks she propped up her bed high enough for her to creep under it and run the rope under the iron frame holding the box spring in place. She kicked it down and dragged the rope under the bed and through the other pins. She repeated the process the other way and when she was done there was just enough rope to tie the knot.

It took a few tries and rope burns but she managed to lift her bed off of the carpet so it matched its position with the legs on. She tied the most complicated knot she could and for good measure hooked the key chain onto one of the circles on the corkscrew pins. Kat put all of her things away and grabbed the heavy artillery. The bed was hanging precariously as it was. She couldn't very well sleep in it unless she wanted the bed to come off the rope. She would plant a dummy to distract it long enough to sneak up on it prepared. She pulled her trusty compound bow she used for her archery team and went outside for a few shots. Her aim was just as good as it always was and even more so with what was at stake now.

That was her weapon and if that failed she always had the rifle. It was a gamble. Her father had a loaded rifle hidden in the closet if anyone was to ever intrude into their house. Kat figured that this counted. She knew very well how to handle it from her father's careful teachings and she handled the weapon with a heavy sense of weight. But halfway to her room Kat decided against it. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she shot a human being. No matter how bad a person it was. After all, the intruder hadn't done things that required death as a punishment. So she went and got her brothers bee-bee gun. It was almost an exact replica of the rifle and felt like it to. But these would be bee-bee's not bullets she was shooting. They would hurt it that's for sure but not kill.

She stashed her weapons in the closet then followed it. Her closet on the right hand side was pretty roomy so she had plenty of room to sit and wait. She left the sliding door of the closet open a crack and sat back. Her clock read 8:09. Kat realized after ten minutes of siting in the closet alone that she was going to need distractions…and snacks. She grabbed a bag of cool ranch Doritos and her Gameboy that hadn't been destroyed into the closet. She played through her Super Mario Land game up to the final level against Bowser to save princess Daisy and by then she could barely keep her eyes open. Her eyelids felt like led blocks, her body was sore and begging her to lay down, her mind pounded with a lack of sleep induced head-ache. She was so tired! Just a few minutes… That's all she needed. Just a few minutes of sleep…

Kat's fingers slowed and her body began to lean forward towards her Gameboy as her eyes began to fall closed.

**BUMP!**

Kat lurched back up and her shock snapped her out of her exhaustion. Her breathing stopped and her chest puffed with the pressure. She leaned forward and looked through the crack in her door and watched as a dark figure crawled out from under her bed and looked to her bed obviously looking for her. Kat let out a controlled breath and took a quiet new short breath. She reached for her bow and held it up to shoot. On the latch sat a very sharp ended arrow. Adrenaline masked her exhaustion and she took careful aim being sure that the limited space wouldn't affect the shot. With a strained breath she released the string and the arrow flew through the crack in the door and cut the rope perfectly. The bed fell into the carpet with a muffled thump and the thing jumped and spun around. The figure wasn't visible in the darkness but she could make out an outline and that was all she needed. She threw the bee-bee gun over her shoulder and kicked the closet door to the side and pointed the gun straight at the guy.

"Hold it! Or you'll have a bullet in your leg!"

The figure stopped and Kat walked back keeping the gun trained on the intruder and quickly hiking the gun onto her shoulders with the same arm on the trigger she flipped her lava lamp on. The bee-bee gun fell into her arms but she dropped it the moment her eyes fell on the trapped intruder. It was hideous! It…it wasn't even human! She wanted to scream but no words would come out. The horror that ripped through her was stuffing the scream in her throat and sitting on it. Its skin was pasty and blue and huge black moles sprouted over all of its face. Its head was covered in deformed ridges and a bluish slightly purplish crop of hair sprouted from its head and created a wild Mohawk. Its ears were deformed and a yellow skeleton earing dangled from its left ear. Ridged horns sprouted from the sides of its head although one of them was missing a piece.

It looked like how Kat felt. Terrified. At the drop of the gun the…monster bolted forward and grabbed it. Moving just as fast Kat jumped to the closet and pulled out her bow and set an arrow and drew it. The monster looked conflicted but scared. The monster had never had an encounter like this before and he was unsure of how he was supposed to react.

"Put the gun down or you'll have an arrow sticking out of your forehead."

Kat was dead serious. And the monster knew it to. It tossed the gun off onto her bed. Kat acknowledged it but kept the bow string pulled tight. The monster, its deformed face grimacing with fear, lifted its hands in surrender.

"You've got ten seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill you."

The monster's mouth opened revealing two rows of perfectly sharp teeth and Kat swallowed a lump of fear. Its lips curled as it heaved out wheezy breaths and Kat stared intently at the monster waiting for an answer.

"I-I wasn't gonna hurt ya! Honest!"

Kat scowled and narrowed her eyes. "Tell that to my scratches."

"Please, babe, I'm only doing my job!"

"Your job," Kat roared and the monster shook, "It's your job to destroy my stuff and hurt me?! Well, then you'd better pick up a job application on the way home. Because you might be having a limb amputation pretty soon!"

Kat went to the closet and pulled out her barrel of arrows and the monster panicked.

"Please! Don't do it! I didn't mean it! I leave ya alone from now on! Honest! PleAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaase!"

The monster was on its knees begging her. It looked like a terrified child pleading for freedom. The monster no matter how ugly it looked, no longer looked...scary. It looked almost pitiful. Kat felt her resolve puncture. The two stared at each other one begging one hard stone but that stone began to crumble. With a kick to the floor and a growl she laid down her bow.

The monster leaped into the air with relief and joy, "Aw, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Kat didn't reply and instead climbed onto her bed and tapped her lamp. The monster cried out and Kat watched in disbelief as the monster shrunk down until it was only clothes. For a minute Kat thought that she had killed it. She lifted the clothes almost sadly until the sleeves began flailing wildly against her arm. A voice came from the clothes and cried, "Put me down babe! You're making me air sick!"

Kat nearly dropped the clothes from shock. But then a sense of dominance and power spread through her and she smirked. It was payback time. She walked over to her closet and pulled out an empty hanger. She spun it around on her finger and smiled at the clothes.

"Wonder what will happen if I hang you up to dry?"

Kat moved to stick the hanger inside the collar of the shirt and then the clothes really started to move.

"No! Please! You're evil!"

"No, I'm getting even."

"Alright! Alright! I'm SORRY OKAY! I'm sorry! Let me go! I'll make sure no one bothers ya again! Okay?"

The monster sounded desperate and miserable. It knew that it was in a very bad position and it was willing to do anything to get out of it. Kat stared a bit longer at the limb clothes. The collar of the denim shirt the monster had been wearing was shaking in suspense. Kat felt a little bad. She was never this mean to anyone. Maybe she was being too mean… With a sigh she tossed the hanger onto the dirty clothes pile and draped the clothes on her bed. She tapped the light off and sat against the closet doors. She watched with disturbed awe as the monster reformed into its usual form. It cast an uncomfortable grin towards her and kneeled down to her bed. Kat made no move to stop the creature as it prepared to run for safety beneath her bed. She knew she had gotten her message across.

Then something happened that Kat had no part in. Sun streamed through her curtains and onto her bed. The monster wailed and Kat desperately shushed it. The horns on its head not only grew back the missing piece but began to grow another few inches. The monster dove behind her bed and hid from the sun as it began to beg desperately.

"The sun! The sun! Let me out! Let me out! LET ME OUT!"

Kat picked up her clock and read the time it was 6:30! Already! She missed the bus! But that was the least of her problems. If that thing woke up her father and he came in who knows what could happen!

"Shut up! Shut up! Just get out of here!"

The monster tried but his hands were going right through her box spring. The monster looked up at her pleadingly and she shook her head and groaned in frustration but walked over to the bed. Taking the side of the bed the monster was not sitting at she used all of her strength to tilt the bed upwards. The monster crawled under it into the shadows and disappeared. With a grunt she let the bed fall and she herself fell onto the carpet with a thump.

That had to be the single most abstract and scary night of her whole life. School could go take a hike and so could her parents. She deserved a freaking medal after that. She just went up against a real monster and she won! She was staying home today. She didn't care what she missed. Kat crashed onto her bed and finally exhaustion caught up with her. Man she was tired! She deserved a long sleep and by golly she was going to get it. So, with a proud smile she allowed herself to cuddle into the covers and fall asleep.


	4. Kat's in Trouble

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

Kat woke up feeling awesome. She felt better than she had in three days. Until she looked at the clock and remembered that she had missed school. Her parents were going to kill her! Strike that, first they would give her the scolding of the century _then _they would kill her. Man, her dad was going to throw a fit! First she got dressed then she sat on her bed biting her lip and staring at her door with dread and conflict. Her dad probably already had found her, it was one o'clock in the afternoon. Kat sighed but stood up and walked to her door. It would only frazzle her nerves more the longer she tried to hide.

Her steps were slow and cautious and she peered around corners like a criminal escaping from a prison. Her father stepped out of his room as Kat stepped out of the hall. His face screwed into an expression of anger and his arms crossed.

"Morning."

"Morning," was all that Kat could reply.

"You want to explain to me why you're here instead of school."

This was her chance. She could spill the truth to him now. The opportunity was here all she had to do was say it.

"I slept in."

She had missed it.

Jerome shook his head a hair away from losing it on his daughter.

"This is bullshit," he hissed as he stared holes into Kat, "T-this can't continue! You've already got FOUR F's! This will kill your grade!"

"I'll take care of it!"

"You've only got three weeks left of school!"

Jerome placed a palm to his forehead and shook his head, "You get those grades up you hear me? No music! No drawing! None of it until you get your grades up!"

"But daddy-

"This is your punishment! If you can't keep your grades up you don't get to do the things you want! This can't continue, Kat. It can't. You're screwing yourself!"

Kat was upset. Anger boiled in her chest. After the shit she went through he was punishing her! He should be rewarding her! But, who would believe anyone who said they'd seen and almost killed a monster from under the bed? Huffing angrily, arms crossed, face tight Kat agreed.

"Fine. Just take it."

"I already did."

Kat glared at her father and he stared back in a mocking fashion, "What? Don't get angry at me. This is your fault. You have one thing you need to do. You don't know how important these years are for you. If you mess around you're going to end up working at a fast food joint the rest of your life. Do you want that?"

"Of course I don't! And that isn't going to happen! I'm just in a rut right now okay. I'll take care of it."

"I'm not so sure."

"…did you call mom?"

"No. I don't want your mother upset. She gets angry at me when she is and finds something to bitch about. But she does know about your grades. So, I suggest you get your homework done now."

Jerome walked back into his bedroom and Kat was steaming alone in the living room. She couldn't believe this! This wasn't fair! Kat didn't want to do her work! But with the looming threat of her mother Kat did all the homework she could. She finished the English project and at the end of it she felt worn. She was packing her finished project, neatly typed with her type-writer, into her folder when her mother burst through the door. Cassandra resembled a cranky old woman in this state. Her freckles were blending into one pool of tanned skin as her face folded in anger. She stared at Kat and she stared back blankly.

"Four f's? Are you kidding me?"

Kat stared blankly with a hint of guilt and shrugged casually. Cassandra shook her head and her eyes seemed to turn red.

"So how many weeks of school do you have left until the quarter ends?"

"Three."

"Huh, that's great," Cassandra grumbled sarcastically and glared at her daughter.

"You have one job Kathryn!"

"I know, I know!"

"No, obviously you don't know! Do you do any homework! You are a smart girl Kat! You could do it if you put the effort in! I-I should have never bought you those game consoles or that radio. I knew I shouldn't have but here we are."

Kat groaned and slammed her head into her palms then glared at her mother's attitude, "I'll fix it! I always do!"

"Why do you do this to yourself, Kat?! You only make it harder on yourself! Get it done now so you can mess around later. It's not that hard."

"Yeah, I know. You've told me that three times. Look! Here's my project! All finished!"

Kat waved her project irritatingly and glared at her mother.

Cassandra sneered angrily and Kat quickly added, "I know you're trying to help. Just-just leave me alone. I'll figure it out. You can't help me."

"Obviously I can't leave you alone because every time I have my back turned you fall down the shit hole!"

"I'll do it!"

Kat and Cassandra stared at each other and Cassandra scoffed at her daughter shaking her head with angry disbelief and turned to leave. Kat finally thought she was rid of the drama until she came back in.

"Who ripped up your books?"

"Huh?"

"Your textbooks. Who destroyed them? Because you know I have to pay for those now, right? That's…how much? Fifty, sixty dollars?"

"The dog must have gotten into them."

Cassandra said nothing but stared at her daughter. Her face seemed to soften just a bit and her voice was angrily concerned as she asked, "Is everything okay? I will help you if you need help."

"No! Everything is fine! Please just…leave me alone. I got to take care of these things myself."

Cassandra left and Kat glared angrily down at her sheets for a minute riding off the anger. Then Blossom, her Lhasa Apso, waddled up to her bed and placed her little front paws at her feet. Kat glanced down into the big brown eyes of her dog and her anger melted away.

"Come here baby."

Blossom tail wagging understood she was permitted and hopped onto her bed. She padded up to Kat's lap and fell on her back waiting for a belly rub.

"Okay, I'll rub your belly. Only because your cute….Pray. Blossom pray."

Blossom raised her little paws up in a praying fashion and Kat gurgled at the cute sight.

"Aww, you're so cute! I just wanna hug you forever!"

Kat scooped the dog baby style into her arms and stuffed her head into its soft furry neck. She pecked her dogs head then laid her back down to pet her some more. When she was finished the dog flipped onto its belly and sat down onto the bed to rest awhile. Kat patted Blossoms back but stood up to leave. Blossom followed quickly behind her and watched as she walked into the laundry room right next to her brother's room. On the top shelf was where all the light bulbs where kept. The house was filled with quite a few pets. Two turtles that lived in a tank under the island next to the laundry room, two parakeets that lived in a big cage set on the island, and of course their dog Blossom. There was a fish, Mr. Noodle, but Mr. Noodle got old and died and all that remained of him was an empty dry tank sitting in a cabinet under the kitchen counter.

Kat grabbed two flashlights they used for camping trips, the turtle tank light, and three other bulbs to put in her fan to make the room brighter. Using extension cords they usual used for Christmas lights she plugged the turtle tank light in but turned the extension cord off. Kat set the turtle tank light onto the television but angled it off so it didn't hit the monster directly. It seemed to hate sunlight and that bulb was as close to sunlight as a bulb could get. On her bed she set the two flashlights. The turtle tank light should have been enough. But, if it wasn't she could always jump over to the switch and switch the fan lights on.

Kat was taking no chances. She knew she had scared the shit out of the monster but there was no telling whether or not the monster would really keep to his promise and stay away. But if he did come back she would be ready. In fact, if Kat didn't know herself any better than the next guy she would have said she was _hoping _that the monster would come back. Then again, she surprised herself on rare occasions. Making sure to get dressed in case, her outfit of choice being a sport's bra under a huge baggy denim shirt that hung just above her knees and a pair of baggy shorts that ended just under her knees, she climbed into her bed. She patted the flashlights and extension cord to remind her where they were then laid back and stared at the ceiling. Only until midnight. At midnight she would call it quits. In the dark Kat laid and waited finger itching to flip the switch to the flashlights and extension cord.


	5. Offer of a Lifetime

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

Kat waited. And she thought. Her mind swam with deep inner conflictions as she thought about her current position. This was insane. Her she was a teenager on the brink of adulthood waiting for a monster to come out from under her bed. But as upsetting as the whole monster fiasco was her thoughts were really set on her school life. How had she sunk this low? No, that question was insufficient. How had she_ let_ herself sink this low? Somehow, all of the troubles of being a teenager were on her shoulders. The slacking was just a doorway to see it. She could never be completely carefree again. In two years she would go off to college and after that she would have a job…

She'd be on her own without anyone to help her. Kat felt so small and uneducated about the world. The thought of growing up both excited and scared her. What if she did something gullible and she screwed up her whole life. It wasn't like school where you could go with the flow and if you messed up you picked yourself up and just got rolling again. Life was an either you succeed or you lose scenario. There was no in between. Kat sighed heavily. Things were just moving so fast. She wanted these last few years of her childhood to last!

Maybe that's why she wanted the monster to come back. He was the first real experience outside of the realm of the norm she had ever had. It excited her, peaked her curiosity! She wanted to feel that experience of seeing a completely new foreign thing. But still, Kat knew she shouldn't be feeling excitement. No matter how much of an exciting thing it was it was still a monster and should be treated with caution. The bed began to move. No, not just move began to rise upwards. Kat had screwed in the legs of bed so her parents wouldn't suspect anything had gone on the night before. She scrambled up and reached for the extension cord holding her thumb over the switch.

The monster appeared. Her bed floated back to the ground and Kat looked to the monster. It looked back at her cautiously but after it could find no weapons grinned.

"Hey babe! Hope there's no hard feelings about all the smashin'."

Kat raised an eyebrow at the unsettling grin of the monster and flipped the switch to the lamp. The monster groaned and shrunk into the same pile of clothes as before. Kat leaned her head over the side of her bed placing her feet against the wall.

"Guess you're still mad," the monster whimpered as the clothes began to move.

"Yeah," Kat stated bluntly with a short laugh.

Kat stared down at the bundle of clothes with a faint smile.

"I said I was sorry…"

"Iiiiiiiiiiiii-don't believe you."

"Come on kid! This light is killin' me," The monster whined loudly making Kat cringe.

Kat puffed out her lips and rolled her eyes in mocking thought. The clothes leaned forward waiting for an answer.

"Okay, I'll turn you lose. But you try ANYTHING and you'll be laundry!"

Kat flicked off the lamp and held up her flashlight at the ready. Remembering the night before Kat switched on her lava lamp. The purple light shone onto the pasty blue skin of the monster as he reappeared and Kat felt her stomach twist. Suddenly, that earlier excitement seemed foolish. The monster turned and seeing her broke out in a toothy grin and Kat wasn't sure if she should smile back or be sick. It hopped onto her bed making it squeak and shake and laid a clawed hand on her shoulder.

"Grazie! Grazie! You've got no idea what that light does to my complexion!"

The monster patted his face and Kat scooted as far away from the monster as she could. But he seemed to want to be close as he pushed her into her pillows at the end of the bed so she had nowhere left to escape to.

"I gotta say babe you don't look anythin' like the nerds from your school!"

"What?" Kat looked at the monster absolutely bewildered but slightly offended as she pulled a long strand of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"What? What? The nerdy chumps that go to your smarty-pants prison! Man babe I thought you were supposed to be quick!"

The monster knocked on her skull and she pushed his hands away and held her head possessively messing her already disheveled hair.

"It's not prison! It's called a school! And those kids that you're talking about are my friends!"

"If you hang out with a bunch of nerds all day then I say you gotta get some new friends!"

The monster laughed loudly and Kat glared. Her stomach was twisting in discomfort and slight fear.

"Would you keep it down," Kat hissed in a loud whisper, "You'll bring in my parents with that racket!"

"Your folks?! Hoo-ha wouldn't want to bring Mummy or daddy in would we? Yeah, bet you're real tired of the lectures they're giving you, huh?"

Kat looked up at the monster and picked up the flashlight defensively. "How did you know about that?"

"Well you got four BIG FAT F'S!"

The monster howled and Kat looked away in shame as her face began to heat. She pointed the flashlight straight at the monster with her finger hovering over the witch threateningly. Her eyes narrowed and her lip curled in a scowl.

"Why are you even here? Was yesterday not enough to get it through you skull?"

"Whoa, whoa, there babe! No need to get violent! I just came to show you a good time."

"Sorry but I don't go anywhere with strangers or monsters. So bug off and go back to wherever you go."

Kat smiled forcefully then reverted back to angry scowling. The monster waved its hands up in surrender then began to pace the floor of her room. But it didn't look saddened or put down in fact it was smiling like he had expected her to say something like it.

"Fine. Fine. But it's your loss babe."

"I don't think I'm missing much," Kat spat and Maurice spun around with an annoying overacted gasp of offence.

"Not missing much?! You're gonna miss out on the time of your life! This is a once in a lifetime, jackpot worthy, cannot be passed up, opportunity!"

"Oh please, enlighten me about this glorious opportunity," Kat drawled with sarcasm.

The monster hopped onto her bed making the posters shake and squeak. Kat hopped out of the way and grimaced at her shaking bed.

"Quit doing that! If you shake it hard enough it'll fall apart!"

The monster just laughed and it pulled her against it with an arm and began its rant.

"Babe, I'm offerin you the deluxe tour of my little slice of heaven."

Kat grimaced and lifted the offending arm off of her shoulder and moved to the other side of the room.

"That's nice but I think I'm gonna sit out for this round."

The monster groaned and looked back to Kat, "You haven't even heard about it yet!"

"I don't need to. Anything you offer is gonna be trouble."

The monster grinned darkly and Kat's stomach clenched.

"Trouble! Ooh! Without us monsters there would be no word in the English language! That's what we're all about!"

"Us? There are more of you," Kat asked uncertainly.

"Of course," the monster scoffed, "Believe you me babe, I'm good but we got a lot of ground to cover. We need plenty of people!"

"What? Ground to cover?"

The monster lolled its head and laughed at her like she was some sort of idiot.

"Come over here little lady and let ole Maurice show ya."

The monster, who she know knew was Maurice, showed her to her bed and lifted it onto its side and with ease. Then he made it float in midair.

"What the…"

Then the monster lifted its leg and stuck in its blue worn out sneaker to the carpet. And…it went right through! Kat in a state of shocked and bewildered kneeled down and tried to do the same with her hand. But she only stubbed it against the carpet.

Kat looked up at Maurice who was grinning smugly down at her.

"Ya see babe! And that's just the tip of iceberg!"

"How-I-I how did you do that?!"

"Magic! That's not even the best part! All you can eat buffet open twenty four hours! Unlimited games! Pranks! And best of all NO RULES!"

"No rules…"

"Nope. Nada! We live by our own terms babe! No parents telling the kids what to do! No more chores, no more expectations, no more limitations! The sky's the limit!"

Kat was quiet as she soaked in this new information in. That world sounded pretty good.

"That sounds great…"

"Ah! Ya see! And as the handsome and generous guy I am to share it with ya!"

Kat felt her caution rising again.

"After I threatened to kill you?"

Maurice winced but smiled after, "Hey, babe any chick that's got the guts to stand up to a "hideous" monster's okay in my book."

Kat's eyes flickered briefly towards her bed. No rules….That sounded like paradise. But being alone with Maurice in her home was scary enough. She'd be in his territory. How did she know he was all fun and games? He could just be a criminal taking her for a chump. Other thoughts flew around in her head. What if she never got back? What would happen to her family? She imagined her mother breaking down and sobbing with grief, her father drinking out of sorrow, her brother growing up confused and empty without his older sister to pest and laugh with. Was it really worth it? No. But still…

"How do I know that you won't just abandon me?"

Maurice's face fell into a puppy like pout, "Does this look like a face that you can't trust?"

Despite her annoyance and disgust with Maurice she chuckled. Maurice caught on quick and he ran to her side and beckoned to the bed.

"Come on! Just one little peek. I promise that if you don't like it I'll take ya back and you'll never hear from this monster again!"

Kat looked between the bed and Maurice's grinning face. He looked so sure with himself. He knew she was going to go with him and she hated that he was right. …Just once…one look and that would be it.

Kat grabbed the smaller flashlight and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Once. That's it! If I don't like it you're taking me back the second I say so!"

"Got it. Yep! Yep! Wouldn't dream of havin' it any other way."

With a shaking sigh Kat stepped up to her titled bed.

"Ready babe?"

"No."

Maurice laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder. Before she knew what Maurice's intentions were Maurice had pushed her through her floor and she was falling. She screamed bloody murder.


	6. Welcome to Monster Town

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

Kat fell in a heap onto a dark sandy ground. Dust puffed into the air as she hit and several joints cracked.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh."

Kat sat still for a few seconds then slowly got back up on her feet and brushed herself off tenderly. Kat glanced up as she saw Maurice come free falling down head first like a swan dive and float gracefully like he was a balloon. Kat huffed angrily as she moved her thick strands of thin hair out of her vision but couldn't help but awe over the sight. Maurice touched the ground with a graceful step and grinned. He bounded over to her side and watched with amusement as Kat ogled her surroundings. Behind her stretched a large staircase that led to a rectangular infinite spreading shadow. She noticed the dirt ground under her feet and glanced up and stared at the thousands of ladders, staircases, and bridges built onto and into high stretching towers that were set up all over. Kat tried to find the top of the bridges and ladder ropes but her eyes couldn't go that far. In fact, Kat realized that she probably shouldn't have been able to see anything! It was completely dark here yet a strange red light shone on everything.

"What the?"

Maurice laughed knowingly, "Think about it babe, in your sleep your dreams are lit, right? This is that same stuff! Not that icky bulb stuff you got up in that drab over world!"

Kat stumbled a bit as a grin slowly spread across her face. It was like the greatest most intricate tree house ever! That or a giant chutes and ladders game.

"I-I can't believe it! This is awesome!"

"What? You thought that we all lived in caves?"

"I didn't think monsters existed," Kat admitted feeling almost sheepish know that she knew better.

"Shows how much you know," Maurice yelled with a huge bellowing laugh.

Kat crossed her arms and gave a purposely childish glare.

"Oh, you know I'm just playing," Maurice cooed as he ruffled her dirty blonde hair making the top strands stand on edge.

Kat attempted to smooth down her hair but it only agitated it more. Kat gave up and let her hair do whatever it wanted. Kat's grin returned as she began to wander to look around. She stepped out of a little fence trail that led out to a huge sign where Las Vegas was flashing in dim neon lights. She walked away from her cites entrance and glanced up. So many staircases! All of them leading to shadows.

"What are all these stairs for?"

"You see Kat; all these staircases lead to some poor tot's bedroom!"

Kat coughed out a disbelieving laugh of awe, "You mean you can get to anywhere in the world through these staircases!"

"Cool, ain't it!"

"Cool? That's amazing! I could see the entire world for free in a week. It-it's just amazing! I can't believe it! All this time we've been sitting on the greatest transportation system in the world!"

Maurice laughed and hit his knee. "Now you're catchin' on! While you slave away up there we're all having fun and making you lives harder down here!"

At the mention of that Kat's mood hardened and she became tough.

"I'm still mad at you for wrecking my things."

Maurice smiled, albeit a little nervously, and hopped ahead.

"I think you'll find it in your heart to forgive me once we get to the real fun. Come on babe! Nights a wastin'!"

As Maurice galloped ahead laughing with glee Kat quickly followed after him. She didn't want to be alone here even if it meant being around Maurice. Maurice was running through towers and over bridges and down stairs while Kat really just wanted to slow down and take everything in.

"Babe, come on! You're holding us up!"

"Hold your horses! I'm comin'!"

Kat huffing grouchily ran after him. But she didn't watch where she was going and she bumped right into somebody. Her stomach hit the floor at the sight of the strangely adorable but yet still gruesome creature. Its skin was like purple clay modeled by a third grader. Its eyes were a bright orange with reptilian pupils; its bright green hair was in two pigtail braids that fell down its shoulders. But the strangest part was that she, Kat was assuming, was wearing a Mary poppinish dress and carrying a large broom.

"Watch where you're going! I just swept there!"

Kat hopped back out of the dust pile under her sock covered feet and stuttered out an apology. "Sorry. Sorry. I didn't see you."

"Yeah, yeah, just keep your eyes open next time, dork."

The monster went back to sweeping and Kat feeling offended stood in shock.

"What are you staring at you ugly human. Run along and go bother somebody else."

Kat gulped in a breath of air and clenched her fists in anger. She opened her mouth wide about to deliver a harsh blow before an arm wrapped around her and silenced her.

"There you are! This guy ain't giving you any trouble is she babe?"

"So what if I am," The monster asked just asking to start a fight.

Maurice smirked and replied coolly, "I'd get to sweeping real quick if I was you."

"Why," The monster snorted insultingly.

"Because someone just kicked your dirt!"

With a huge wail of laughter Maurice kicked the dust up and grabbed Kat wrenching her in the direction he was running. The monster wailed in fury and the slap of wood on wood echoed in the silence from the monster slamming the broom down with frustration. Kat's arm had begun to hurt by the third round about and she wretched it from Maurice's grip.

"That wasn't cool Maurice."

Maurice scoffed and looked at her strangely, "The girl was making fun of ya?"

"So you kicked dirt in her face just for saying some dumb shit?"

"Yeah! Free game! Plus, Dusty and Lint have never liked me so I just give em what they shell out."

"How come you don't like each other?"

"Ah," Maurice said with a wave of his hand, "They're just jealous cause I'm better looking and I'm a top notch scarer and they can't scare for shit."

"So…what do they do? If-if they can't scare?"

"If you can't scare then that usually means you're one of the ding-dongs that got themselves stuck here by accident. So we just pawn off some jobs that no one wants to do on em."

"That's not very fair," Kat noted.

Maurice shrugged like it was a trivial thing that should just be brushed off.

"Hey, some guys got it and some don't."

Kat looked back briefly out of instinct and smiled as a thought came to her. "She's awful grumpy for a Mary Poppins impersonator."

Maurice chuckled and patted her on the back.

"You should see Lint! He's a priss if ever there was one!"

Kat couldn't help but chuckle. As Maurice continued to lead her through the many wandering paths and bridges Kat shrugged his arm off and scooted a good foot away.

"So how does this work?"

"Wha-?"

"Monsters…you know… Are you guys this whole society? I mean…you said that Lint and Dusty got trapped under here?"

Maurice seemed to become a little more tense but he grinned and quickly shoved it to the side, "It's nothin babe. Monsters are just monsters! No mystery we just do what we like and have fun doing it!"

Kat nodded though a little suspiciously and peered ahead, "Uh…where are we going? WOAH! Hey, be careful!"

Kat jumped to the side as two little monsters having an all-out water gun fight spritzing one another mercilessly ran through them. They looked like two little kids on a summer day with their shorts, baggy t-shirts, and sneakers. The girl was a midnight blue and her hair was a vibrant purple that stuck up around her head in two tiny pigtails. Her arms were hidden behind tons of neon bracelets and toy rings covered her fingers. The boy had short pink hair that fell around his bright green spiked ears. Plants grew out of his arms and legs and he wore one vine with dangerous looking pink flowers that actually moved and had biting mouths with sharp little thorns for teeth as a belt. Tons of necklaces fell around his neck Kat had a hard time believing he was able to stay standing and not topple over to the ground.

"Looks like you're all washed up, Andrea!" The boy monster behind Andrea shouted and shot a good geyser of water from his water pistol into her hair. She screeched and shot him back in the face.

"Ha! You aint so tough are you now?"

The two continued on ignoring them until they were out of sight.

"Who were they."

"Andrea and Wolfgang; grade A pests."

"Why's the boy's name Wolfgang?"

"We used to call him gang green but he changed it to wolf gang."

"For the plant thing?"

"That and the little sucker plagues ya like a bad case of it. Good for scaring the kids not so good when you're trying to have a little fun."

"So he's always annoying?"

"Him and Andrea, yeah. They are."

"They don't look that bad," Kat declared after a careful evaluation.

"Pft, try livin' with em."

Kat walked on with Maurice and looked up expectantly when Maurice broke out in excited laughs.

"You're gonna absolutely LOVE this place babe!"

Maurice pulled her and Kat actually felt a little anticipation. Maurice pulled her under a bridge to a small high ceiling room with a door made of mirrors. She gulped at the sight of the monster standing guard at the front of it. He looked like Popeye the sailor man if he was big, red, and had giant horns curling out of the sides of his head into spirals. His eyes were a glowing and eerie yellow and his heavily muscled arms were twice the size of his thighs. He smiled a fanged smile at Maurice and Maurice smiled back.

"Hiya Maurice, who's the new meat?"

Kat heard herself gulp. Maurice glanced back and smiled back at the guard.

"She's with me pinball."

"Your new girlfriend?"

Kat blushed and felt her stomach jump around in her belly.

"Nope. Nope. Just a friend."

"Too bad. She's got a pretty face."

The monster Pinball cast a wink and a smile at her and she looked away in embarrassment. The monster cracked up and swung open the door.

"Go on inside and have some fun!"

Maurice pulled her in and the room exploded with noise. The room was filled with the high pitched beeping of arcade games. Ear numbing music blared from unforeseen speakers above. Kat stumbled in blown away by the sheer size of the game room. It was the best arcade ever! A baseball flew past her and she followed it as it landed in the mitt of a monster that looked like a deformed doll. As she looked around the monsters were scarier and scarier than the ones standing next to it. Some of them put Maurice to shame. Some looked like animals, dolls, demons, crosses between people and household objects like one that she saw that had a radio sticking out of his stomach. One had his head on upside down and another one was walking on her hands. If Kat had seen this any other time she would have been terrified. But with the roaring excitement and fun it didn't matter. All that really mattered was grabbing as many coins from mom's changes as her fists allowed and shoving them into her pockets and getting to a game and playing.

Kat frolicked through the crowd of monsters to the nearest game. Mortal Kombat! Yes! Kat picked out a quarter from her bulging pocket and looked for the coin slot. When she kept tapping her coin against a solid console the monster next to her with a teddy bear for a head and dinosaurs hands groaned and smashed his fist against the coin slot button and it whirred to life. Kat smiled and shook her head with amazement. Kat leaned her face into the console screen as she watched her avatar Kitana beat the shit out of Scorpion. Her fingers mashed the buttons and smashed her hand against the console stick. Her body jumped as she played.

She almost had him! Just a hair more damage and she could do her finisher. Soon enough she found her chance and mashed the stick and buttons in a certain pattern and Kitana stabbed her swords through Scorpions eye sockets. Blood splattered over the 8-bit brick and Kat yelled out an ooh followed by a string of laughs. Kat hopped to the next one which was a pinball machine and she began to play. As she did she looked up at the counter. It was set at over a billion. Kat couldn't believe that anyone could have ever reached that score! She was on her last ball and she was a billion less.

Maurice watched with an amusement but slightly annoyed smile. Kat grunted and whined as she bucked the flippers desperately trying to keep her last ball up. Maurice bumped her out of the way and picked up the machine forcing the ball to roll back to the top. Kat looked up at him in outrage.

"What are you doing? You'll tilt it!"

Kat watched for a second more with anger until she watched the ball smash around in against the little poles and the counter started to sprint.

"Come on, Kat! Turn on the ole noggin! There's no such thing as tilt!"

Kat felt her chest swell with excitement and a grin spread across her face. No tilt? No rules? No expectations! This world was turning into the best decision of her life!


	7. Having Some Fun

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

Maurice kept his hand firmly gripped around Kat's smaller one. In a two man follow the leader game Maurice walked through the crowded isles tugging Kat behind him. Never had Kat felt so utterly gleeful before! The trembling of the crowd, the whirring and twinkling of the game consoles, the pounding vibrations from the music as it beat in time with her heart. Never had she ever experienced such a high! The only thing keeping her from floating into the air was Maurice's taunt pull on her arm. Maurice led the joy dazed Kat through another fun house mirrored hallway out an entrance that led into another room.

Maurice gasped and Kat murmured a string of awed words at the sight. It was a cafeteria if it was designed by a kid. Instead of dinner tables they were using cleared pool tables. On the green Velcro was the largest array of fatty food she had ever seen. It was like the monsters had taken every favorite food from the kids at her school and tossed it into one place. Man, Kat thought with a low whistle, if the cafeteria served food like this the school would be rich! Every food a kid would like you just had to name it. Hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, chicken cooked in all different ways, chocolate bars and other candy, birthday cakes, soda and other sugary and fruity drinks, doughnuts, cereals, dogwood sandwiches, mac and cheese, anything!

And the monsters were going at it like hungry piranha. They all barged each other and tossed food scraps over their shoulders onto the ground. Angry munching and slobbering sounds could be discerned from the noise and all Kat could feel was the overwhelming urge to charge into the front lines and get as much food as her hands could hold into her mouth and fast! She ran from Maurice to a giant stack of ice cream cartons. Kat couldn't believe her eyes. In the back of her mind she had always faintly wondered just how many flavors of ice cream really existed. Well, now she knew! Cartons upon cartons stacked neatly on the pool table filled her eyes. Every single flavor she could think of and more! She reached out and grabbed a pistachio carton and looked for a spoon.

She didn't find a spoon but she found a straw. Whatever worked? Kat could only laugh at how dumb she must have looked trying to eat ice cream with a straw. Maurice was watching with a tolerant smile as he ate a hotdog as she looked through the food for a fork but he broke out in laughter when he saw her trying to eat with a straw.

"Babe, what are you doing?" Maurice was spluttering and coughing between laughs from his hotdog going down the wrong pipe.

"You okay there?"

Maurice nodded and punched his chest a few times holding out his hand.

"Yeah…what are you doing? You're never gonna eat it if you go at it with a straw!"

Kat argued her point with, "I couldn't find a spoon."

Maurice reached into the leather vest he was wearing and scooped around in it before he pulled out a spoon. Kat stared at the offended object then slowly reached her hands out and wrapped her fingers around it. Even slower did she tilt the spoon into her ice cream and scoop a spoonful into her mouth. But after a full mouth she resigned herself and ate the ice cream with pleasure. But soon the monsters seemingly had their fill and they shuffled out of the room to better things. Maurice being one of them pulled Kat out of the room. Two monsters carrying giant tanks and hoses ran into the room.

"Hey! What are the-

The floor was engulfed with flames for a split second and when the smoke cleared there was nothing left of the food scraps on the ground but everything else was in perfect condition.

"How?"

But Maurice didn't lend ear to her confusion and instead pulled her away to show her more of his world.

"Oh! I got just the thing!"

"Huh?"

"Trust me babe! I got a feeling that you're going to love this next part!"

Kat could feel the smile cracking her cheeks. Maurice pulled her off into the underworld. Kat's mind was queasy with the sheer amount of twisting trails and long bridges they had crossed to get to their destinations. How far were they from Las Vegas now? Kat watched around her as monsters walked to and from where Maurice was leading her to. A monster was carrying a delicate vase passed them. Another was carrying a box of collectable stone eggs. A television set, jewelry, dishes, paintings, video game consoles, radios, anything that was valuable and delicate was being brought to the place. When they came back they were in pieces. Kat frowned suddenly down. She could relate to that. She followed the monsters carrying it and followed them up staircases and ladders into the shadows. Must be some poor guy's things. Feel sorry for them…

**Crash!**

"What was that?"

Maurice just laughed a pulled her along. Soon they approached a poorly built fence, though Kat wasn't sure that it was made to be structurally sound, and she peered through the large gaps to see what was happening. Her heart jumped and her nerves jolted with excited eager signals to her muscles. It was baseball! Well, not exactly. There was a batter and a pitcher. No basemen though. In fact there were no bases except for the pitching mound and home plate. But there were plenty of out fielders. They were all scattered in between wood slated boxes with the expensive fragile object piled onto them. Kat watched in fascination as the pitcher who was a white dog with a black nose throw the ball and a monster with a skull face and a football helmet shaking on his head swung the bat. The crack of the bat echoed in the silence and followed the white streak with a victorious crash of china shattering. The crowd seated in bleachers off to the side followed after the ball and cheered when the ball crashed into a porcelain lamp.

Kat grinned and turned to Maurice with adrenaline flushing her cheeks.

"Can I play?"

Maurice grinned and nodded with laughter, "Ya bet ya!"

Kat jumped beside him as he dug through a barrel of mitts.

"Here, that ought to fit."

Kat caught the mitt and slipped it onto her hand and flexed the fingers.

"Okay, how do I do this so I'm up to date?"

"We get the shit, we smash the shit, and we put the shit back."

Maurice laughed and Kat narrowed her eyes at Maurice and the field momentarily.

"Is this what you did to my stuff?"

Maurice looked up and shrugged with a gleeful little gurgle of laughter. Both could detect none of the earlier poison in her voice. She was all fun right now.

"Well, I am pretty good with a bat…"

"Hell, then get up to bat! It's open right now!"

Kat went rigid. "Maurice I haven't played in a while! I don't!"

Maurice shoved a bat into her arms and pushed her up to the bat. Kat watched helplessly as Maurice ran to outfield and patted his mitt and kneeled ready for her to shoot the ball out of the park. Kat looked up at the pitcher whose darks eyes looked her over and he smirked. He thought she was small potatoes.

"Go one Dogears! She'll knock this one right into space!"

Kat wanted to strangle Maurice! She was going to miss! But now with the pressure she put on a brave face and steadied her placement in the sand. Dogears suddenly seemed much more focused. He examined her placement and then winded and threw. Kat followed the ball and stepped forward and swung with all her might. And she missed. The wind could be felt in the outfield and the crowd was deftly silent. Kat's being flushed with angry disappointment and then she leaked determination. She was going to hit this one. The outfielders crouched sensing that if she hit this one it would be a hard one. Kat gripped the handle resting it on her shoulders. Her feet dug into the sand and her legs bent leisurely but kept sturdy.

Dogears watched her for a few seconds and looked behind her briefly to the catcher. They made eye contact and both of them flinched at the intensity. Dogears slowly stepped back for the wind, his arm drew back and the crowd held their breaths. He let it go and Kat's mind raced. As the ball approached a stream of smoke following she swung with all of her might. The crack of the bat was so loud it stabbed her ears. The bat vibrated so bad she dropped it and hopped back. She watched with wonder and pride as her ball streamed through the dark abyss like a white comet. It bounced into the tower behind it and went sailing towards a music box and it broke into pieces as did the china under it. And the ball smashing the music box had forced the music box down and a fish bowl that had been resting on it was launched into the air and crashed into the tower a crossed from it.

The crowd cheered and Kat leaped with an air punch and a grin. Maurice whistled from the outfield and called her over. Kat grabbed her mitt and hurried over giving any monster that held up their hands a high five.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

Maurice gave her a hand numbing high five and she slipped her glove on. They played through five innings. Maurice and Kat yelled out sporting complements and jests as they missed balls and caught some. Maurice caught most of them. Kat got laughed at but was clapped on the back when she tried to jump up to catch a ball and fell back into one of the boxes and knocked over several things and smashed them. The monsters all laughed at her clumsiness but they also gave her cheery smiles of amusement. Kat brushed herself off and threw the ball back to Dogears. He gave her an appraising smile and she smiled back. She had always had a good arm. At the sixth inning Maurice had a panic attack. He screamed and for no reason grabbed her and they ran from the field tossing their mitts onto the ground carelessly.

"Maurice! Why are we leaving?"

"I got to get you up before sunrise!"

"Why? What's gonna happen?"

"Unless you want horns or a permanent place on the team you need to get back up there."

Kat gulped. Her feet tramped against the sand with passion over Maurice's footprints. When they were at her staircase she ran up and tried to go up. But she couldn't do it. Kat panicked and pounded her fists against the black space.

"Hold it! Hold it! Cut the engine!"

Maurice wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled them both through. Kat crawled out and cringed at the bright burning light of sunrise. She looked down but the sun had already covered the shadow. She hadn't even said goodbye or thanks.


	8. Pranking Time

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

"Kat, you okay?"

Kat glanced up into the face of John who, from Kat's point of view behind his glasses, had big bug eyes that snapped her awake in a second. He was staring back with an amused smile. Kat realized that she must have dozed off. She was so tired! She could barely remember getting on the bus that morning. They were in theater jotting down the early morning warm up vocab. Kat's page was blank except for a few pencil arcs from the pencil slipping as her arm went limp on the paper.

"Yeah, John, I'm okay."

"You look like you got _no _sleep _at all_!"

"Yeah, I was studying all night."

"Hey, where were you yesterday?"

Kat looked back at her friend Kathryn and replied, "I was sick."

"Oh…what from?"

"Cold. My brother got it at his school and now I've got it."

"Ah! That sucks. My baby cousin got it to. Been laid up for a week."

"Aw, that's sad…"

"Yeah, but he's almost better."

"Okay good."

Kathryn nodded while Kat was smiling mischievously onto her notebook. If only they knew, if only…. She quickly scribbled the word on the bored and held her tongue in the group sharing circle and said she was sad because she was up all night studying. After class they split up to work on their self-scripted open scenes. Kat paired up with John and they created a scene where one of them was drowning in a pool and the other saves their lives.

"Don't worry I'll save you!"

John dove into the imaginary water while Kat flailed desperately and gurgled. John pulled her across the floor a few feet then stood her up. She looked up at John and he looked back waiting for the line. Kat couldn't remember it. She cursed and reached into her pocket for the paper.

"Kat! I thought you had this!"

"I do! Just let me…"

"Focus!"

"Okay…you saved my life!"

Kat smiled and John cracked up.

"Who's unfocused now?"

They two giggled and spent the rest of the class watching other's scenes and laughing, which included Kathryn and her partner Samantha's scene.

"Look out," Kathryn shouted and Samantha leaped across the floor into the lockers.

"What were you thinking?! You could have died," Kathryn cried shaking Samantha's shoulders.

"I'm sorry! It's just…so hard."

Samantha broke down while Kathryn held her and Kat tightened her lips at one side of her mouth and said blandly, "So sad."

They laughed and so did John and her. When class ended John walked with Kat to orchestra.

"So, you going to the Halloween dance next Friday?"

Kat thought for a second then wobbled her head in an iffy gesture, "Maybe….but chances are that I probably won't be there."

"What if someone asks you?"

Kat glanced at John and asked humorously, "You have a girlfriend, right?"

"Yes! I was just wondering cause your my friend!"

"Sure…but yeah. If someone asks me I'll go. Not if he's a freak though…"

"That's mean," John said through one of he's unique laughs.

"No! I meant if he's a murderer, really creepy, or….just not my type."

John laughed, "I love how you said that. Just…not my type."

"Yeah. Is that so shocking?"

"I don't know man."

The two walked into the orchestra room and took a seat next to one another.

"Hey Scottie."

Scott looked up and nodded as he put together his trombone. Kat put her wetted reed onto her mouth piece and looked over at John who was putting together his Clarinet. She took out a pencil and her music and began to play Thriller.

"Kat. Kat! KAT!"

Kat stopped and looked up. Alice was looking back from her stool, her pink smile and blue eyes staring back from behind the corner of her Base.

"Hey."

Kat waved and returned to her music. The PA system cut her off as the annual pledge was announce. She stood her tenor sax lying limp over her middle her right hand respectively over her heart as she said in a monotone voice the pledge. Though, the monotone didn't last long as John was defiling the pledge by injecting perverted words like tits and ass into it making her laugh out of shock value. Though, she was used to it now. They played through their songs for the Halloween Concert and by the end Kat's throat and mouth were sore from playing on a new 3 ½ size reed. Lunch period was after and after she met up with her friend Madeline and Alex.

"Hey bro."

Kat smiled, "Hey."

Kat pulled out her lunch box and pulled out a baggy of Doritos. But after the night of eating nothing but Doritos she really didn't want them.

"You want these?"

"Huh, yes!"

She took the chips and nibbled at them. They made eye contact and laughed. Alex came over and sat on Kat's lap.

"Get up."

"Aw, ruining my fun."

"Does your mother know you do this?"

"Of course not."

They laughed and talked through lunch. The rest of the day Kat was lost in thought of the underworld, Maurice, and believe it or not the Halloween dance. She hadn't planned on it; honestly she had never considered it until John asked her. She was a bit conflicted on it. She loved Halloween but dances had never been her thing. She just never found interest and always she found herself getting bored hallway through the dance. Finally she conceded with the option of going if someone asked her and moved on. Then all she thought about was the underworld and Maurice. She couldn't wait to get home, take a nap, and then see Maurice again. The thought made her chuckle. The change of attitude had been quick; take Kat down for a good time it doesn't matter if you're an ugly abomination she'll warm up to you. After a fun conversation with James and Ernie that consisted of Ernie's monkey impression and James very real dog woof she walked home and crashed on her bed for sleep. It was Maurice who woke her up around eight. He crawled out from under her bed turned expecting to find a smiling face bit instead finding a sleeping figure.

"Up and at 'em, Kat! We got a whole night of fun ahead!"

Maurice received nothing in response except the soft rhythmic breathing through Kat's nose. Maurice grunted annoyed and grabbed the nearest shoulder and shook it violently. A placid hand came out of nowhere to smack him in the face. He grunted and stumbled back and Kat bleary eyed and scared sat up with crazy sleep eyes. When she spotted Maurice her heart thumped for a split second until memories flooded back and she flopped back down into her pillows.

"Maurice," Kat whined, "why'd you do that?!"

Maurice jumped up and jumped on top of her with a laugh. Kat huffed and groaned in pain and punched Maurice repeatedly.

"Get up, bro! You're hurting me!"

Maurice still laughing got up and so did Kat. Maurice cut off all other speech by grabbing her hand and quickly lifting the bed and throwing her under. Kat's angry scream was so loud it sounded like she was still in the room. Maurice laughed and jumped under the bed himself. When he landed Kat looked like she was about to shoot him. In fact, she marched up and began to weakly slam her fist down onto his head and shoulders.

"Ouch! Ouchy! Why you gotta be so MEAN!"

Kat stepped away with an expression that said, "Yeah, that's right. I totally just won that fight."

"That's what I thought….wimp."

"Wimp!"

Kat ran as Maurice chased after her. She let out a girlish shriek of laughter as she ran through staircases and past other monsters. A few she noticed. Like a little mini version of Maurice carrying a bat and wearing a suit, a monster wearing a clown suit with a face that looked like stretched taffy, two monsters sitting next to the metal cans from the night before in the lunch room, two more playing with some fireworks, a pair of monsters skateboarding, and a girl monster carrying a red wagon filled with little dollies and a tea set towards the dining room. Each turned briefly to acknowledge them then returned to what they were doing. Though, Kat notice a select few were watching with dirty sickening smiles or slight curiosity at what was going on.

Kat took refuge behind a bigger tower and pressed her back flat against it. Her heart pounded and her breath was heavy. She silently ordered her breath to quiet itself as she tried to hide. She couldn't keep in the hissing giggle that left her lips from the fun suspense. Kat tried to listen for footsteps but that was near impossible since they were treading on sand. Kat stupidly leaned over the corner of the tower to gain a quick glance for Maurice when she was pulled into the air around her middle, her arms included, and she screamed in delight as Maurice screamed with laughter.

"Ah! Put me down! He's got me help!"

"I got ya! I'm going to cut off your hair and put it on a dolly!"

"No! Don't do it!"

"Oh yes! Ah-ha-ha!"

Both broke out in insane laughter and Maurice placed Kat back onto solid ground while patting her back.

"He-he that was fun…So, what now?"

"Oooh-WEE!"

Maurice wrapped an arm around Kat and pulled her shoulder flush against his side so hard that Kat was worried that her shoulder stabbed one of his ribs.

"What you are about to experience is the bread and butter of monstering. It is what we do! It's…It's….it's an art!"

Maurice laughed and Kat couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculously serious he took this topic.

"I'm going to pass my wisdom down to you, my young pupil."

"So, you're the Mr. Miyagi of Monsters."

"You better believe it, babe."

Kat lifted her hands and lowered her tone and said in the best Asian accent she could muster, "Wax on wax off."

Maurice laughed and Kat giggled. Kat gasped when she saw the huge desk where monsters were piled up to. It reminded Kat of the DMV, which she hated beyond all reason, and she felt suddenly very nervous about approaching. But Maurice wasn't and he pulled her up to the line and they cut through it pulling little dumb pranks like tying shoelaces and calling people over, and sometimes just flat out walking in front of them. They were stopped near the front behind two girl monsters. One looked like a Dalmatian with a unicorn looking horn jutting out from the center of her head. The other looked human except for the cute little horns jutting out from her temples. This one turned around and Kat instinctively smiled and she pleasantly smiled back. Then she noticed Maurice who was busying himself by messing with monsters nearby.

"Are you with Maurice?"

"Yeah."

"I'm vixen."

"I'm Kat."

"Are you that girl that tried to shoot Maurice in the face?"

Kat glanced back sheepishly at Maurice and looked back worriedly, "He told you about that?"

"Maurice? Pft. Guy's got a bigger mouth that a fat guy at a buffet. But, he's also been bored for a while so I'm not surprised he brought you down."

"Bored? Ha, how could you get bored down here?"

Vixen sighed and tucked her blonde hair behind her shoulder, "He's just been sad since his buddy Brian left after toasting boy. You're the first person he's hung out with sine then. Not surprised he picked up a chick though."

"What?"

"Maurice is a ladies man," Vixen said with a raise of her elegant brows and a smile as one that was giving out a feminine secret.

"It's not like that! I just…"

"It's okay Hun, I know what you mean."

Kat smiled awkwardly while Vixen still wore that same knowing smile. Kat smiled back but stopped once Vixen stood up to the front desk. Kat glanced back at Maurice and frowned. Now, she was curious. Who was Brian and Boy? Was Brian human? He must be if he had left right? She wondered…

"BABE! It's our turn! Get your but into gear!"

"Oh! Sorry…"

They stepped up and Kat almost wanted to run away. In fact she probably would have stumbled away if Maurice wasn't standing slightly behind her and slightly to her side. Kat was alright with most bugs. Just a little piece of pepper or tissue and she'd set them free into the backyard. She saw no reason in killing them. But if there was insect she hated it was cockroaches. The monster sitting behind the desk of colorful toys and papers and folders looked like a humanoid cockroach. And it was freaking her out. He had four arms, at least…Kat hoped it was a guy; and his eyes were sunken into red layered skin.

"Hey Maurice?"

"Hey Smoog."

"Who's the babe?"

The monster flicked its tongue and chirped like a cockroach and Kat stepped back into Maurice and grabbed his hand. That was not only creepy but she was getting really grossed out to. Maurice gripped her hand and glanced down at her with a smirk.

"She's a gutsy babe I decided to bring down here for the time of her life," Maurice proclaimed with a pat to her hair.

"Is it the smart ass school babe?"

Kat looked up and between the two with an offended look of interest.

"Yeah, had to save her from the prison of square cotton heads!"

The monster Smoog laughed and picked up four envelopes. HE handed each off to him describing the client they belonged to, "You got a gnat Georgia, a dork in Saint Louis, a pest in Argentina, and a brat in Colorado. Go out there and make us proud!"

Maurice saluted and led Kat away by her hand which he was still holding. He noticed how smooth the skin of her hands were. So soft.

"So, you don't take kindly to academic establishments, do you?"

"Nope. Aint nothing but a prison of numbers and letters! Fills your noggins with meaningless crap then you stuck in a box for the rest of yer life!"

"Uh, we learn stuff that is useful and they teach us to think outside the box."

Maurice mocked her and she just sighed with a wave of her hands.

"Come on, babe! Doctors and lawyers and bankers are all nice gigs. But, don't you want to do something that you like?"

"I am gonna do something that I like."

"What?"

"I'm gonna be a writer."

"Good luck with that."

Kat huffed and stuffed her hands into the denim jacket he was wearing and stared at her black combat boots and the rolls of her jeans.

"What are we doing?"

"Here."

Maurice shoved a folder into her arms and Kat glared at him for a second before opening the folder and looking inside. Inside was a background history on a boy named Andrew. His entire current state and fear was in there. His age, school, friends, fears, everything. It was scary. How did they get a hold of this information?

"Kat, babe!"

Kat looked up and Maurice had already gained a yard in front of her. Kat ran after him and followed as Maurice led her to Georgia and up a dark staircase. They crawled out and Kat stayed rotted to the spot when she found the small little boy snuggled into his Thomas the Tank engine blanket. Kat looked to Maurice and he was glancing down at the kid then smiled up at her mischievously.

"You can't mean…"

Maurice nodded and his grin only grew.

"Look how little he is."

Maurice nodded and replied, "Yeah, they're always the best. Little squealers."

"Maurice, I don't want to do this…"

"Come on, I'll show ya."

Maurice grabbed her dragged her into the strangers house and Kat could do nothing to stop him.


	9. Picking on Little Brothers

**I don't Little Monsters in any shape way or form. I only own Kat. Sorry if this chapter's a little weak. :/ Next one will get the plot going I promise. :)**

"Maurice, seriously! He's so little! This isn't fair!"

"Life isn't fair babe! I'm doing the little twerp a favor! The sooner he realizes the world is out to get him the better off he'll be. It's simple logic."

"It's simply horrible."

"Come on, now. A second ago you were all fun and now you choose to grow a conscience?"

"I didn't think we'd be harping on a four year old kid!"

"Shhh!"

They both stopped at the sound of a groaning at the squeaking of a spring mattress from the next room linked up to the little boys room from the open bathroom door followed by steady snores. Kat realized then that they must be in an apartment building.

"Maurice, please…"

Maurice groaned and scowled at her, "Quit whining and come on!"

Kat swallowed a lump at the cold words and followed him reluctantly into the bathroom. Kat watched as he planted a bunch of childish but mean pranks around. Emptying all the shampoo bottles, taking all of the makeup products and drawing on the bathroom mirror until the metal bins were empty of concealer and lipstick and eye shadow and the makeup brushes were destroyed. Then he emptied a huge bottle of expensive looking lotion down the sink and painted that onto the mirrors as well. And to top it off he used the toilet and made sure to piss on the seat. Kat stood out of the room for that one and grimaced at the groan of relief that came from the bathroom.

Maurice came out of the bathroom, without washing his hands Kat noted, and smiled proudly.

"Okie dokie babe, your turn. Living room and kitchen is all yours."

Kat slowly walked down the hall and froze as she stepped into the outer rim of the combined room. She glanced back at Maurice who was still smiling but with a stern edge and waved her on. Kat sighed feeling terribly pressured and uncomfortable and went into the kitchen first. She looked in the fridge and found it to be mostly empty except of course for a school lunch bag. She checked the cupboards and they were mainly empty too. So, she walked into the front room and found a bunch of knick knacks. She grabbed a few with a tightening in her belly and handed them to Maurice. Then she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut open some pillows and threw the fluff everywhere. Then she scraped the scissors against the kitchen table and legs until they were dull as hell then slid them in between the couch cushions.

"Let's go smash some shit!"

Maurice cackled and Kat mustered a small smile. They snuck out of the house being sure to avoid any and all porch lights and smashed the figurines on the porch then scooped up the glass pieces and dumped them lazily in and on the kitchen trash bin. Then they left. Maurice was laughing and Kat giggled forcefully but felt utterly guilty by what she had done. But she couldn't get out of the rampage they were on. They visited three more houses that night. Turning the houses into every parent's worst nightmare. They scratched cars, wrecked valuables, left little disgusting surprises around the house like dog poop and bugs they had caught from around outside. When the night was over Kat felt both guilty yet proud. It was difficult to decide which one she liked better. Because with Maurice she wanted to feel happy about it but at the same time she didn't feel so hot about all the mess either.

"Wasn't that fun babe!"

"I guess so. Just isn't my thing I guess…"

"Ah, you'll get better! Stick around with me and you'll be a pro in no time."

"Who taught you?"

"I taught myself," Maurice proclaimed with a shrug.

"You didn't have any buddies to show you?"

Maurice seemed to wilt just a bit and answered, "Nah, I was a loner back then. Just trying to figure out how the world spun, you know."

"Yeah, I get that…"

"Well, got to get you back up."

"Okay."

They walked through tons and tons of stairways and Kat finally asked, "How do you remember all these staircases?"

"Well, I've been doing this for quite some time babe. Just sticks with ya after a while."

"Just how long have you been a monster?"

Maurice stumbled a bit on his next step but played it off with a laugh, "Longer than you've been alive I'll tell you that babe!"

Kat smiled, "So, how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"You sure?"

"Yeah…a few years give or take."

Kat let the topic go seeing as it was getting akward. At her staircase Maurice grabbed her waist and pushed her into the shadow with ease.

"See ya, Maurice."

"Later, babes."

Like that he was gone. Suddenly Kat felt lonely and bored all at once. Now what was she supposed to do all Saturday? Well, she slept half the day away. Then she went to go see her brother because she knew that her parents would still be upset with her. He was playing on the Gameboy and before she could even say anything he yelled, "Go away!"

Kat growled and fled the room. Anger bubbled in her chest and suddenly she got an idea. She went through the whole day watching television and when night rolled around she waited patiently at the foot of her bed and grinned when Maurice popped up.

"Hey, all dolled up for me babe," Maurice asked with a suggestive grin.

"You wish. Come on. I got a special job for you tonight."

"Ooh, what do ya got in mind babe?" Kat sat up and motioned for Maurice to follow her she went into her kitchen and pulled out a good pair of scissors from one of the drawers. Then she tip toed into her brother's room.

"Ooh. Ha-ha! I've been waiting to get this little twerp for ages. Go ahead babe! Give him a good trimmin'!"

Kat looked up and the last tiny spark of guilt dwindles and was put out. Kat grinned and pulled up a strand of her brothers chocolate brown hair and cut it off. Maurice let out a dark giggle and it only motivated Kat further. Snip by snip cut by cut her brothers hair was taken off until it was an uneven horrible mess. Kat laid the scissors on her brother's dresser and cackled to herself.

"Man is he gonna be pissed!"

Maurice hopped up and patted her on the back," See what'd I tell you doll? Gets the blood pumpin'!"

"Just the other day he was telling me that I wouldn't dare shave his head."

"Looks like he lost that bet," Maurice said with a laugh.

"Damn right."

Kat smirked up at the ceiling as the cogs in her head turned. She could do this to whoever she wanted! In fact, there was someone that might have deserved it ten times more than her brother…

"Maurice. I got another idea."

Maurice giggled and moved to lift her brother's bed.

"Wait! Let me get my boom box!"

Kat ran to her parent's room and snuck through and grabbed her boom box. She spent one second staring at her parent's bed and for the first time in her life she felt indifferent to their opinions. The world didn't matter at night. She didn't belong to her world. She belonged to Maurice's world. Grinning Kat ran back into Chase's room where Maurice was waiting and she took his hand and hopped down willingly into the shadow. Once down Kat sat on the step and pulled out her Beetle's tape and popped it in. The two enjoyed the tunes as they walked through the underworld. Maurice tried to sing along but it was apparent that he wasn't a singer. But he was extremely energetic and amusing so Kat forgave him for it.

"Maurice. Next stop, Pine Creek Grove. Buddy Hedrick's."

Maurice smiled darkly and broke out in a sprint with Kat lagging behind by the weight of her boom box. Once under the bed of Buddy Hendricks she left her boom box behind and crawled out from under the bed and glared down at the pretty little blonde boy lying there. Kat wasn't a bullied person. She didn't show any lack of self-confidence she was a pretty social person but she didn't stand out much either. So Buddy Hendricks didn't full out bully her but he did heckle her on a daily basis. Stupid names like suitcase girl was one of them seeing she used to take a rolling backpack to school and names that made fun of her slight chubbiness. But as freshman year rolled by and she showed no signs of weakness and only got stronger he had mostly left her alone except for the few occasional glances this year. But Kat had seen him and his gang picking on freshman that were much more sensitive and self-conscious than she was and now it was payback time.

Maurice got the electric razor and then went to town on his "perfect" hair the girl were always fawning over. Kat was smiling proudly when the job was done and so was Maurice. But Kat noticed there was a different sort of satisfaction in his eyes as he looked over the sleeping kid. Kat left and felt no pity for the boy's appearance she had now destroyed.

"Could we go get a bite? I'm starving! I haven't eaten all day."

"Sure babe. Get to keep that meat on yer bones."

Maurice pinched the bit of belly fat at her middle and Kat yelped and ran after him laughing. Kat practically devoured everything in sight when they made it to the food room. She had eaten so much her stomach hurt afterwards.

"Whoa, there babe take it easy. Watch the vest. Don't want any puke on it."

"Relax. I've never puked from over eating in my life. I didn't eat enough to puke anyway."

Maurice glanced at her and pushed her away with an arm anyway.

"Knock it off!"

Kat gave a yawn and Maurice noticed.

"Hey, babe. You tired already?"

"Yeah. Just a bit."

"I think we did enough tonight."

"What! No, come one just….just one more hour."

"Nope. Nope. Can't have fun with a sleepy head now come on."

Maurice led her back to her staircase and helped her up. Kat crashed on her bed and looked up at Maurice.

"I want to stay!"

Maurice took a moment to look over the sight of her lying in bed like that looking at him like a puppy begging to be let back inside and Maurice grinned.

"Keep your panties on babe, we'll hang out tomorrow night."

Kat's face drooped into boredom but when Maurice laughed she laughed with him.

"Fine…"

"See you later, babe."

Then he did the last thing on earth she expected. He kissed her cheek. Then he hopped under the bed. Her hand flew to her cheek and her eyes flew open like someone had doused her with cold water. She had never gotten a kiss on the cheek from a guy and monster or not her heart was fluttering madly in her chest. She lied back down onto her bed and closed her eyes trying to force the thoughts in her head away but failing miserably.


	10. Girl and Squib

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form.**

After an hour of lying in bed thinking Kat fell asleep and slept through Sunday until about three o'clock. Her dreams had been a silky black pool of nothingness and when she woke up the bright afternoon sunlight streaming through the window was nearly blinding. Yelping she hid her eyes in her hands and attempted multiple times to open her eyes but all attempts received the same reaction. Reaching onto her table she pulled out her sunglasses and shielded her eyes. That seemed to fix the problem as she could now look around without feeling like her eyes were being filled with sand. She got up and walked out into the living room. Her father was busy folding laundry while a football game played on the television.

"Well, look who it is! Were about to call you dead."

"Shut up," Kat said with a smirk.

"Too bad for you. If you had gotten up earlier I would have made you some French Toast."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried. You wouldn't budge."

"What's with the glasses coolio?"

Kat shrugged, "Just fell like wearing them"

"That's cool, man. That's cool."

"I'm hungry."

"Don't make anything! Your mother will be home soon with dinner."

Kat groaned.

"If you're that hungry eat an apple."

Kat sighed, "Never mind. I'll wait."

"Oh, where's your boom box?"

Kat turned to face her father and she realized with a sickening feeling in her stomach she'd left it in the underworld.

"I don't know."

Her father dead serious stared at his daughter, "It's not in my room."

"I swear I don't know where it is. If you don't believe check my room over."

With that said Kat walked back into her room. Once inside she glanced at her back pack and thought of her homework. She had some math to do and that English project. But there was no way she could finish all she had to do. It was due Wednesday and there was no way she could all of her activities and research in that time. With a heavy sigh she fell onto her bed. No sooner had she crashed on her bed than the door slammed open and an angry Alex stood in the doorway. His eyes were a burning red, steam billowed out of his ears, and his hair was horribly mangled and ragged and uneven. Behind him was her father now looking very angry.

"I'm going to kill you!"

"For what," Kat asked innocently.

"This," Alex shrieked pointing to his disfigured hair, "You ruined my hair."

"You never took care of it. I thought I was doing you a favor. Bedside's it's payback for destroying my dolls!"

Alex moved to strangle her screaming that he hadn't done it but their father pulled him behind his back.

"I'm VERY disappointed in you, Kat."

"Come on, it was a joke for revenge. He can wear a hat. And don't act all innocent, the things you did to your sisters were worse."

"We're not talking about me this is about you. And what I did wasn't right."

"It was funny. Come on, look at him! He looks so goofy!"

Alex growled from behind Jerome and Jerome broke a quick smirk then wiped it away.

"After you get these grades up, no nothing for another month."

"WHAT!"

"You heard me."

"That's not fair! You didn't punish him when he broke my dolls!"

"I didn't do it!"

"I don't care! You're the last one and you just got unlucky."

"This bites!"

That was the end of it and Kat watched them leave with shocked face and her brother stayed for a second to glare daggers at her then he too left. Kat punched her pillow and crossed her arms angrily. That didn't turn out like she had wanted at all. Well, at least she still had Buddy's trauma to look forward to. Angry, she grabbed the book A Little Princess from the shelf in the front room and retreated to her room to read it. She had read it dozens of times over but it was just what she needed to pass the time. As she read she smirked at her father's shrieks and screams at the television as the game played out.

Her mother came home with dinner an hour and a half later. She didn't say a word about Alex's hair but her angry look was just enough to tell her she wasn't happy with her. It was pizza and Kat resigned herself from dinner from the amount of Pizza she had been eating lately and made herself some toast and went back into her room. Then she took a quick shower and changed into a black under shirt then a baggy white one that exposed her shoulder and black strip of the undershirt and that was tied at her hip with an rubber band, some baggy jeans with a few holes, a few belts hanging around her hips, some skull earrings and brushed out her hair and parted it over her left eye then put it up into a high side ponytail leaving her bangs to cover her eyes.

That night all she could think of was how much she wanted to hang out with Maurice some more. Now, she wasn't quite feeling the excitement. She had school tomorrow to boot. Meaning she had to pull her ass out of bed at five and leave before six thirty. Kat groaned at how tired she suddenly felt. She looked over at her clock and sighed at the time of eighty thirty three. Maurice would be here soon. This time she wouldn't let herself be persuaded. No matter what. Maurice wouldn't be able to do it this time. So she climbed into bed, thinking how she shouldn't have gotten all dressed up, and turned off her lights and went to bed. Maurice popped up underneath the bed a half an hour later. He was surprised to find her asleep again, considering she was fully clothed and wearing sneakers, after she was so reluctant to go back up last night. That made him smile a little. So leaning down he took a second to look over her soft features. Her skin looked so pale at night. Her face was blissful and calm, not a trace of stress to be found anywhere. She had cuddled into the stuffed animals so her head was barely on the pillows and mostly buried under her stuffed toys.

Maurice smiled and gently poked her cheek. Again and again he poked her cheek and the most he got out of her were swats and little squeaks. Laughing he stuck his pinkie into his mouth making sure it was good and slobbered and stuck it into her ear. It took a second for Kat to wake up yelling and quickly wiped the spit from her ear.

"Sick! Man, that's gross! Maurice, why would you do that?'

Maurice couldn't answer he was laughing so hard. Kat couldn't help herself and started to laugh to as she used her shirt to wipe the rest of the spit from her ear.

"You like your present."

Kat glared at Maurice and stared at her mattress waiting for Maurice to stop laughing.

"Maurice, I got school tomorrow. Let's not go out tonight."

"What?! Miss a night of fun for school," Maurice spat in disgust.

"Well, sorry if I don't want to be a walking zombie through school."

"Forget school. Let's go have a ball!"

"Are you deaf or stupid?! I told you, I have school tomorrow I need sleep!"

Maurice scowled and folded his arms in a pout, "you would rather sleep than go and do whatever you want."

"Yeah."

"Come on."

"No! Don't. You. DARE!"

Maurice walked towards her and Kat slid back, "I'm warning you! I'll get my bow! I-hey! Put me down! I mean it! Stop!"

Maurice dropped her from the shriek and stared back disappointedly. Kat brushed herself off and glared.

"I'm sorry. We can hang out tomorrow."

"Wow, when did you become a stick in the mud?"

"Excuse me? I have been doing everything you wanted me to do for the past three nights and your telling me I'm a stick in the mud?!"

Maurice shrugged a scowl still on his face and Kat stood steaming.

"Fine! Fine! Let's just throw the rest of my school priorities out the window, eh?"

Kat lifted the bed took a step and fell through. Maurice smirked to himself and followed her. At the ground Kat was waiting arms crossed and a frown creasing her face.

"Don't make that face, babe. Make's you look more ugly than you already were."

Kat gasped and turned her back on Maurice.

"Ah, come on babe. I'm only kidding," Maurice added quickly jumping in front of her. Kat took one look at him then turned away from him again. This game continued while Maurice talked, "Just hold still, will ya! Come-come here!"

Maurice finally managed to pull Kat into his chest stopping any chances of her continued to spin her back to him. Maurice took a second to breathe and enjoyed the feeling of her against him for a second. She was very cushy, like a teddy bear. Kat on the other hand was noting how sturdy he was, like a thinly cushioned wall. Plus, Maurice had a strong grip stopping her from moving. She was weakly struggling but even if she had been struggling wildly she wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Maurice looked down at her and Kat looked up and puffed the hair out of her eyes to look back. They looked at each other for a second and Kat gave up and let her forehead fall on his chest.

"M-m-m-Maurice," Kat whined miserably, "I'm gonna be so tired!"

"Quit your complaining babe! No whiners on this train! Look what I got!"

Maurice skipped back to the staircase and from under the first steps he pulled her boom box.

"My boom box! Thanks! I thought it would be destroyed or somethin'…"

"Lucky for you I found it before some other monster got their paws on it."

"Where are my tapes?"

"I….couldn't find those….Sorry kid."

"Ooh! It took me five years to get all those tapes!"

"We can just go snatch some more."

Kat glared up at Maurice and sighed, "Okay. I can just go and buy some more."

"So, what are we doing tonight that was so friggin important you dragged me out of bed?"

Maurice shrugged and grinned a shit eating grin.

"Really? Oy."

Kat sat over onto the steps of her staircase and Maurice followed after.

"Did you have ANY ideas?"

"I just go with the flow, darlin'."

Kat shrugged as she messed with the volume knob on her boom box.

"Wanna just chill here?"

Maurice shrugged and leaned back onto the next stair with his arms behind his neck, "Fine with me, babe."

Kat shrugged again and adjusted herself so she was sitting on her side with her legs stretched out over the stair onto Maurice's ankle with her other leg sitting on the step below with her knee leaned on her other leg. She propped her head on her arm and sat her other arm on the same step.

"So…how are you?"

"Can't complain babe."

Kat nodded her head and shrugged again, "I'm okay. School sucks though…"

"Why do you stick up for that prison if you hate it so much?"

"I don't hate it! I love to learn stuff I just don't like doing homework…"

"What kinds of things to you learn in that dinky little place anyhow?"

Kat tilted her head, "Lot's! Math, science, anatomy, reading. The usual stuff just with a lot more thrown in."

"Sounds like junk to me."

"Alright wise guy. When's the last time you were in school. And did you even graduate?"

"I went to school! Just never got to finish it…."

Kat watched Maurice's face and decided not to push the issue. Then she got an idea in her head that she knew would freak Maurice out.

"Hey, wanna know a fun fact."

"Why not," Maurice said with a shrug and a smirk at Kat.

"When Praying Manti's mate the female eats the male after."

The look of horror on Maurice's face made Kat laugh until her belly was sore.

"What the hell!"

"Y-your face! You looked so horrified!"

"Yeah! That's messed up!"

"Yeah. Basically it comes down to an important question for a guy Mantis. Stay Alive or get laid. Stay alive Or get laid."

Maurice shuddered and Kat laughed and patted his back.

"So, I'm taking it you wouldn't be a praying Mantis if you could be an animal."

"No!"

Kat laughed then lay back on the stairs and looked over at Maurice who had calmed down and was staring up at the darkness then at her. They stared at each other a second longer before Maurice smiled and asked, "What?"

"Nothing….so, do you live anywhere?"

"Yeah I got a place to crash. Why'd you ask?"

"I dunno. I just haven't seen any houses or anything so I assumed…"

"You wanna see it," Maurice asked his face smoothing into a seductive stare. Kat felt her face heat up and she gulped.

"I was only being curious," Kat stated firmly.

"Curiosity killed the cat babe."

"I ain't dead yet."

Maurice chuckled and jumped off the staircase.

"I'll give ya the tour of my little abode babe."

Kat smiled but grabbed her boom box and threw it up into the shadow before running back down the staircase to follow Maurice. He led her through the underworld making jokes along the way.

"Oh! I got one! Knock, Knock."

Kat raised an eyebrow but played along anyway, "Who's there?"

"The door!"

Kat broke out in giggles and patted his arm.

"Why'd the monkey fall out of the tree?"

"Why," Maurice asked with anticipation.

Kat laid a hand on his shoulder leaned in and huffed out, "Because he was DEAD!"

Both laughed and Maurice wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Ah," Maurice said wiping a tear from his eye, "That was a good one."

"Yeah, that's my dad's favorite. He's been telling that one to me since I was a little kid."

They walked on and Maurice leaped forward as they came to a clearing.

"Ta-da! Home sweet home!"

Kat felt her heart sink a little at the sight. It wasn't a house, wasn't even a room. It was nothing but three hastily made walls. In the middle was a hammock attached to four wooden poles. Action figures and toys laid scattered on the ground. Baseball cards were pinned to the walls as well as multiple newspapers clipping from previous years. 1970's, 1960's, 1980's and all different events.

"You _live _here?"

"Yeah! It aint as fancy as your house but it's all I got."

"No, no! I didn't mean… It's nice…Nice baseball cards."

"I've been collecting 'em," Maurice said proudly pulling at his vest. Kat stepped up to get a closer look and grinned.

"Is this a vintage signed Babe Ruth card?"

"You betcha!"

"Where did you get this?!"

"I find em here and there. Just rummaging, you know."

Kat looked around at the ground and picked up a discarded bubble mix bottle. She opened it up and blew a few bubbles and watched them float up to the sky and disappear into the darkness.

"I wonder how high they go before they pop."

"Probably pretty far!"

"Hmm."

Kat looked around and squinted her eyes at a far building in the distance where a colored spark of light was floating around.

"What's that over there?"

"Where?"

"There! That's building with the light over it! What is it?"

"That's just Boy's old staircase."

Maurice waved his hand and Kat was only more curious.

"Who's Boy?"

"Boy WAS the ruler of this joint. Before my best bud roasted him for good."

"Brian?"

"Yeah! How'd you know that?"

"Vixen sort of told me…"

Maurice cursed under his breath and glanced away for a split second then looked back.

"Stupid…"

"So, who was Brian?"

Maurice crashed onto the ground and gestured for Kat to come closer, "Take a seat babe. It's story time."

Kat sat next to Maurice and Maurice explained the story of his best friend Brian and how they became best friends and defeated the monarch of the underworld Boy and Snick. Snick sounded like a card. He gave her the shivers just hearing about him.

"You miss him a lot huh?"

"Yeah. But, he's a bright kid. Moved on to bigger and better things…"

"What if he came back?"

"Be the best day of my life!"

Kat smiled to herself and glanced over at the tall tower.

"So, if Boy's not up there, how come it looks so empty?"

"No one goes up there anymore. Gives people the heeby geebies."

"I dare you to go up with me."

"Huh?"

"I dare you to go up with me," Kat explained slower with a creepy smile on her face.

Maurice gulped and shook his head feverishly, "Uh-uh, babe. No way! I ain't going up there!"

"If there's nothing there than you've got nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm telling you babe, I'm not doin' it! No one knows what's up there!"

"If Boy's gone than it's just some toys and a room….Fine you big baby. I'm going with or without you. I wanna see."

"Babe! I-I won't rescue you if you get in trouble!"

"Okay! I'll figure it out!"

"Kat! Babe!"

But Maurice couldn't stop Kat. She had already walked away and Maurice felt his stomach clench in worry as he watched her go. Kat walked through the underworld following the tower and once she had reached the staircase al lump formed in her throat and her hands grew damp. It was a long way up. Slowly, she started to climb up the stairway glancing down briefly to acknowledge the distance she had come. But finally she had reached to top and glared up at the giant doors. All it took was a small push for the doors to open. Inside it was a massacre of toys. Wooden pieces, fluff, broken bookshelves, and overturned toys. It was eerily silent and as she stood at the doorstep Kat didn't want to go in. But she did anyway. With baby steps she entered and looked around. Stepping over toys she made it to a stage where she climbed and she stepped towards a curtain reaching out to draw it back and a hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned to face a monster that looked like an antelope smiling darkly. Kat hopped back in fright and the monster laughed.

"Got you good, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. I thought my heart jumped out of my chest there," Kat said with an uncomfortable giggle, "Who are you?"

"I'm squib," the monster answered bowing slightly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm-

"I know who _you _are."

"You do," Kat asked glancing around her for a moment in confusion.

"Yeah. You're that dork Maurice has been dragging around."

Kat didn't like the way Squib said Maurice's name. It sounded like he didn't like him at all.

"Uh, yeah. You know-

"You should be more careful with who you choose as friends."

"Huh?"

"Maurice is a poor excuse for a monster. You should hang out with monsters that are up on your level."

Kat stared up and down at Squib and felt her heart tense at the dark almost warning but seducing look in his eye.

"Maurice is nice. I like hanging out with him."

"Yeah. He's good for a joke. Makes himself look like an idiot."

"Hey! He's my friend," Kat replied in a timid but firm tone.

"Sure…when you want to hang out with REAL monsters look me up. I'm always here."

With a wink he walked out of Boy's room and Kat shivered her goose bumps out. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself. Then peeking out to make sure Squib was gone she slowly walked down the steps. At the bottom Maurice was waiting anxiously.

"There ya are! I was about to go in after ya."

Kat smirked, "I thought you weren't gonna rescue me?"

"Yeah, I'm a big teddy bear. I couldn't just let ya get hurt."

"Aww, you're sweet," Kat said pulling lightly at one of his cheeks.

Maurice pushed her hand away and rubbed his cheek. Kat silently disputed whether or not to tell Maurice about Squib. She decided not to.

"So, you find anything exciting up there?"

"Not really. It's abandoned with a bunch of wrecked toys everywhere…You guys should make a playhouse out of it."

Maurice glanced up and wore a look of thought.

"Let's go to the arcade! I'm dying to beat that pinball machine score!"

Laughing Maurice wrapped an arm around Kat and they ran off. From the shadows behind the staircase Squib watched the two run off and squinted his eyes in disgust and ran off to the monster ball field.

"Girl."

A Monster that looked as if she was a normal human wearing a poodle skirt and wearing her Black hair in a ponytail looked up from the goldfish bowl she had been looking at.

"What's news do you have for me?"

"I met Kat today. She's like that Brian boy. Very sentimental. I tried to convince her Maurice was stupid and she defended him."

Girl tapped her spindly fingers on the glass of the bowl her sharp red nails glinting.

"Hmmm. Get to know the girl better. Make her like you. Then you can introduce her to me and when I make my move we'll have a better chance of having her side with us."

"Maurice won't like it. He'll suspect something."

"That fool, he's of no threat to me," Girl said with a bored wave of her hand.

"You underestimate him! Maurice is beloved; people WILL listen if he wants them to."

Girl twirled her nail over the water watching the shimmering gold fish swim closer and closer.

"Alright. Go and try not to act suspicious. For now I want you to keep an eye on them. I will give you further instructions at a later time."

"Yes Girl."

Squib started to walk away but turned back only to find Girl dropping the flailing goldfish into her mouth. Squib shivered as the crushing sound met his ears and he hurried away.


End file.
